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4.STri CoNGRi ss, / SENATE. S *•'«• ^^"C. 

yd Session. 3 ) No. 5G. 



THE 



DEDICATION 



Washington National Monument, 



WITH THE 



ORATIONS 
HON. ROBERT C, \yiNTHROP 

AND 

HON. JOHN W. DANIEL. 

FEBRUARY 21, 188S. , 



PUBLISHED BV ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1885. 



.f 



THE DEDICATION 

OF THE 



WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT, 

FEBRUARY 21, 1885. 



PrtELIlMIlSrARY mOCKWDIlSTG-S. 

The Congress of the United States, having received a noti- 
fication from Hon. W. W. Corcoran, chairman of the Joint 
Commission for the completion of the Washington National 
Monument, that the shaft was approaching completion, 
passed the following joint resolution, which was reported to 
the Senate by the Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont: 



Joint Resolution in relation to ceremonies to be authorizcil upon the completion 
of the Washington Monument. 

Whereas the shaft of the Washington Monument is approaching 
completion, and it is proper that it should be dedicated with appro- 
priate ceremonies, calculated to perpetuate the fame of the illustrious 
man who was " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
his countrymen": Therefore, 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That a commission to con- 
sist of five Senators appointed by the President of the Senate, eiglit 
Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, three members of the Washington Monument Society, and 
the United States engineer in charge of the work, be, and the same 
is hereby, created, with full powers to make arrangements for — 

First. The dedication of the Monument to the name and memory 
of George Washington, by the President of the United States, with 
appropriate ceremonies. 

Second. A procession from the Monument to the Cai)itol, escorted 
by regular and volunteer corps, the Washington Monument Society, 
representatives of cities. States, and organizations which have con- 

:{ 



4 Dcd'ual'u»i of llic II as/ii/i!^/o/i K'atioiial Moiiiiniciit. 

tribiitcd blocks of stone, and such bodies of citizens as may desire to 
appear. 

Third. An oration in the Hall of the House of Re{;resentatives, 
on the twenty second day of February, anno Domini eighteen hun- 
dred and eighty-five, by the honorable Robert C. Winthrop, who 
delivered the oration at the laying of the corner-stone of the Monu- 
ment in eighteen hundred and forty-eight, with music by the Marine 
Band. 

Fourth. Salutes of one hundred guns from the navy-yard, the artil- 
lery headquarters, and such men-of-war as can be ancljored in the 
Potomac. 

And such sum of money as may be necessary to defray the ex- 
penses incurred under the above provisions, not exceeding two thou- 
sand five hundred doJlars, is hereby appropriated, out of any money 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

Approved, May 13, 1884. 

The Commission, as appointed by the Presiding Officers 
of the Senate and of the House, was: Senator John Sher- 
man, of Ohio; Senator Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont; Senator 
William B. Allison, of Iowa ; Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of 
Delaware; and Senator Ivucius Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi ; 
Representative William Dorsheimer, of New York; Repre- 
sentative John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia; Representa- 
tive John H. Reagan, of Texas ; Representative Patrick A. 
Collins, of Massachusetts; Representative Nathaniel B. El- 
dredge, of Michigan ; Representative Henry H. Bingham, of 
Pennsylvania; Representative Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois; 
and Representative James Laird, of Nebraska. W^ith these 
members of Congress were associated, under the joint reso- 
lution: Hon. W. W. Corcoran, J. C. Welling, LL.D., and 
J. M. Toner, M. D., members of the Washington National 
Monument Society; and Lieut. Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey, 
U. S. Army, the engineer in charge. 

The Commission, after the performance of the duties 
assigned to it, made the following 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 5 

K E IM ) R T : 

The Commission organized under the joint resolution, approved 
May 13, 1S84, "In relation to ceremonies to be authorized upon the 
completion of the Washington Monument," as modified by the joint 
resolution approved December 18, 1884, respectfully report that at a 
meeting of said Commission, held in the room of the Joint Commit- 
tee on the Library, June 19, 1884, Hon. John Sherman was desig- 
nated chairman, E. J. Babcock secretary, and F. L. Harvey assistant 
secretary 

An invitation was extended to Hon. Robert C. Winthrop to deliver 
an address in the House of Representatives on the occasion of the 
dedication, which was accepted. The correspondence relating thereto 
is herewith communicated. 

Special invitations were sent to the distinguished persons described 
in the joint resolution, and an engraved card of invitation was sent 
to a great number of civil and military organizations throughout the 
United States, the Regents of Mount Vernon, relatives of General 
Washington, and distinguished persons, a copy of which is herewith 
communicated. 

Selections from the letters of acceptance and declination are also 
communicated. 

The Commission invited Lieut. Gen. P. H. Sheridan to act as 
Marshal of the Day, with an aide-de-camp from every State and Ter- 
ritory. This invitation was prom])tly accepted, and General Sheri- 
dan entered with zeal and activity upon the performance of the duties 
assigned him. 

An order of proceedings for the dedication of the Monument, for 
the procession from the Monument to the Hall of the House, and for 
the arrangements at the Capitol was provided by the Commission and 
approved by concurring resolution of the two Houses. This order 
of proceedings was executed in all its details without any acrident, 
interruption, or change. 

The thanks of the Commission are justly due to General Sheridan 
for the admirable manner in which the order of procession was exe 
cuted. 

The addresses, prayers, and ceremonies are herewith communicated 
in the order in which they occurred. 

The Commission feel that ihcy will not have fully discharizvl then- 
duty without reporting to the two Houses a resolution of thanks to 



6 Dcdicaiion of tJic IVas/iingfon National Momcmetit. 

Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, for his skill, 
abiUty, and fidelity, and to his associates and the workmen for the ad- 
mirable manner in which they have performed their respective duties 
in the erection and completion of the Monument 

A monument has been erected to the name and fame of George 
Washington, more imposing, costly, and appropriate than ever before 
was erected in honor of any man, and without the loss of a life in its 
construction, or any accident or event to mar the hearty satisfaction 
of the American people at its successful completion. 

John Sherman. Nathaniel B. Eldredge. 

Justin S. Morrill. Henry H. Bingham. 

William B. Allison. Joseph G. Cannon. 

Thomas F. Bayard. James Laird. 

Lucius Q. C. Lamar. W. W. Corcoran. 

William Dorsheimer. James C. Welling. 

John Randolph Tucker. Joseph M. Toner. 

John H. Reagan. Thomas L. Casey. 

Patrick A. Collins. 

Programmes were ptiblished, under the direction of the 
Commission, giving the Order of Proceedings at the IMonu- 
ment and at the CajDitol. General P. H. Sheridan published 
a series of Orders, giving the appointments of Marshals 
and of Aids, directing the formation of the several Divisions, 
stating; the route over which the Procession would march, 
and making special assignments of : The Ancient and Hon- 
orable Artillery of Massachusetts as honorary escort to the 
President of the United States ; the George Washington Post, 
No. 103, Grand Army of the Republic of New York, as hon- 
orary escort to the President-elect of the United States ; and 
the First Troop of Pennsylvania City Cavalry as escort to 
the Marshal of the Day. The details for the organization of 
the Procession were carried out by the Chief of Staff of the 
Grand Marshal of the Day, W\i. P.rig. Gen. AllK-rt Ordway, 
U. vS. \'olunteers. 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument 7 

rHli; DKDIC^TORY EXERCISKs^. 

The weather on Saturday, February 21, was clear and 
cold, the ground around the base of the Monument was 
covered with encrusted snow, and the keen wind, while it 
displayed the flags on every hand, made it rather uncomfort- 
able for those who arrived before the appointed time. The 
regular troops and the citizen soldiery were massed in close 
column around the base of the Monument, the Freemasons 
occupied their allotted position, and in the pavilion which 
had been erected were the invited guests ; the Executive, 
Legislative, and Judicial Officers ; Officers of the Army, the 
Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Volunteers ; the Diplomatic 
Corps, eminent Divines, Jurists, Scientists, and Journalists; 
venerable Citizens, representing former generations; the 
Washington National Monument Society, and a few Ladies 
who had braved the Arctic weather. 

The Marine Band, stationed in front of the pavilion, en- 
livened the scene by the performance of admirable music. 

Senator Sherman, precisely at 11 o'clock a. m., advanced 
to the front of the pavilion and commenced the dedicatory 
exercises with the following prefatory remarks : 

ADDRESS DY HON. JOHN SHERMAN. 

The Commission authorized by the two Houses of Congress to pro- 
vide suitable ceremonies for the dedication of the Washington Monu 
ment direct me to preside and to announce the order of ceremonies 
deemed proper on this occasion. 

I need not say anything to impress upon you the dignity of the 
event you have met to celebrate. The Monument speaks for it- 
self—simple in form, admirable in proportions, composed of endur- 
ing marble and granite, resting upon foundations broad and deep, it 



8 Dcdicaiion of thr ]]'asliiiigto7i National Monument. 

rises into the skies higher than any work of human art. It is the 
most imposing, costly, and appropriate monument ever erected in the 
honor of one man. 

It had its origin in the profound conviction of the jjeople, irre- 
spective of party, creed, or race, not only of this country, but of all 
civilized countries, that the name and fame of Washington should be 
perpetuated by tlie most imposing testimonial of a nation's gratitude 
to its Hero, Statesman, and Father. This universal sentiment took 
form in a movement of i)ri\ate citizens associated under the name of 
the Washington National Monument Association, who, on the 31st 
day of January, 1848, secured from Congress an act authorizing them 
to erect the proposed Monument on this ground, selected as the most 
appropriate site by the President of the United States. Its corner- 
stone was laid on the 4th day of July, 1848, by the Masonic frater- 
nity, with imposing ceremonies, in the presence of the chief officers 
of the (Government and a multitude of citizens. It was partially 
erected b)- the National Monument Association with means fur- 
nished by the voluntary contributions of the people of the United 
States. 

On the 5di day of July, 1876, one hundred years after the Decla- 
ration of American Independence, Congress, in the name of the peo- 
ple of the United States, formally assumed and directed the completion 
of the Monument. Since then the foundation has been strengthened, 
the shaft has been steadily advanced, and tlie now completed structure 
stands before you. 

It is a fit memorial of the greatest character m human history. It 
looks down ujkju scenes most loved by him on earth, the most con- 
spicuous obje* t in a landscape full of objects deeply interesting to 
the American people. All eyes turn to it, and all hearts feel the 
inspiration of its beauty, symmetry, and grandeur. Strong as it is, it 
will not endure so long as the memory of him in wliose honor it was 
built; but while it stands it will be the evidence to many succeeding 
generations of the love and reverence of this generation for the name 
and fame of Ceorge Washington — " First in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." More even than this — the 
prototype of jjurity, manhood, and patriotism, for all lands and for 
all time. 

WilhdUt further preface 1 proceed to discharge the dul) assigned 
me. 



Dedication of the -Washington National 'Monument. 9 

After music by the Marine Band, prayer was offered by 
the Rev. Henderson Suter, Rector of Christ Church, Alex- 
andria, Va., where Washin<^tou worshiped. 

PRAYER BY REY. HENDERSON SUTER. 

Ahnighty God, Ruler of nations and of men, by whose providence 
our fathers were led to this goodly land, and by whom they were 
guided and sustained in their et^brts to secure their liberties, accept 
this daY the grateful homage of us, the inheritors of their well-earned 
rights. 

Them and their leaders Thou didst choose With courage and 
patriotism Thou didst inspire all ; but we to-day, while unmindful of 
none, are specially called to acknowledge as Thy gift George Wash- 
ington. 

In honor of him. Thy servant, the Nation of Thy planting and 
of his thoughts and prayers has built this Monument, and we to- 
day, in that Nation's behalf, speak to his God and ours in prayer 
and thanks. 

As we stand beneath the lofty height of this memorial work, 
and mark the symmetry of its form, we would remember Wash- 
ington's high character and all the virtues which in liim builded u]! 
the man. 

A leader fearing God ; a patriot unstained by self; a statesman 
wishing only the right, he has left us an example for whose following 
we supplicate Thy hel]D for ourselves and for all who are now, and 
shall hereafter be, the instruments of Thy pro\idence to this land and 
Nation. _ 

In so far as he followed the inspirations of wisdom and of virtue 
may we follow him, and may his character be to the latest genera- 
tion a model for the soldier, for the civilian, and for the man; that 
in our armies may be trust in God, in our civilians integrity, and 
among our people that home life which extorteth praise; and so all 
those blessings which he coveted for his jjeople and his kind be the 
heritage of us and of our children forever. 

() God, llic liiL^h and nn'ghty Ruler of the universe, bless to-day 



lo Dedication of the WasJwigton National Moiutfneitf. 

and henceforth Thy servant the President of the Ignited States and all 
others in autliority. 

To our Congress ever give wisdom. Direct and prosper all their 
consultations. 

May our judges be able men, such as fear God, men of truth, go\- 
erned in judgment only by the laws. 

May our juries be incorruptible, ever mindful of the solemnity of 
the oath and of the great interests depending on its keeping. 

May no magistrate orofificer, having rights to maintain or order to 
secure, ever " wrest the judgment of the poor," or favor the rich man 
in his cause. 

O God, throughout our land let amity continually reign. Bind 
ever the one part to the other ])art. Heal every wound opened by 
human frailty or by human wrong. Let the feeling of brotherhood 
have the mastery "over all selfish ends, that with one mind and one 
heart, the North and the South, and the East and the West, may. seek 
the good of the common country, and work out that destiny which 
has been allotted us among the nations of the earth. 

Merciful Tather, from whom " all good thoughts and good desires 
come," let the principles of religion and virtue find firm root and grow 
among our people. May they heed the words of their own Wash- 
ington, and never " indulge the supposition that morality can be 
maintained without religion," or forget that " to political j^rosperity, 
religion and morality are indispensable supports." Deepen in them 
reverence for Thy character. Impress a sense of Thy power. Create 
a desire for Thy favor, and let it be realized that man's highest honor 
is to be a servant of God, and that to fear Him and keep His com- 
mandments is our whole duty. 

O God, in all our relations with the nations of the earth let honor 
and justice rule us. May their wisdom be our guide and our good 
their choice. Emulative only in the high purpose of bettering the 
condition of man, may they and we dwell together in unity and 
concord. 

Bless all efforts to widen the sphere of knowledge, that true wisdom 
may be garnered by our people and nature yield her secrets for man's 
good and Thy glory. 

In all our seminaries of learning — our schools and colleges — may 
men arise who .shall be able to hand down to the generations follow- 
ing all thai time has given. 



Dedication of tJic WashingUm Natiotial Monument. 1 1 

And look upon our land. Give us the rain and the fruitful season. 
Let no blight fall upon the tree, no disease upon the cattle, no pes- 
tilence upon man. 

To honor Thee, O God, we tliis day yield our homage and offer our 
praise. 

Our fathers "cried unto Thee and were delivered." 

" They trusted in Thee and were not confounded ;" and we, their 
children, gathered by this Monument to-day, the silent reminder of 
Thy gifts, ask Thy blessing, O Ruler of nations and of men, in the 
name of Him through whom Thou hast taught us to pray; and may 
no private or public sins cause Thee to hide Thy face from us but 
from them turn Thou us and in our repentance forgive. 

To our prayers we add our thanks — our thanks for mercies many 
and manifold. 

Thou didst not set Thy love upon us and choose us because we 
were more in number than any people, but because Thou wouldst 
raise us up to be an asylum for the oppressed and for a light to those 
in darkness living. 

For this great honor, O God, we thank Thee. 

Not for our righteousness hast Thou upheld us hitherto and saved 
from those evils which wreck the nations, but because Thou hadst a 
favor unto us. 

For this great mercy, O God, we thank Thee. 

Not solely through man's wisdom have the great principles of 
human liberty been embodied for our Government, and every man 
become the peer of his fellow-man before the law ; but because Thou 
hast ordered it. 

For this great mercy, O God, we thank Thee. 

And now, our Father, let this assembly, the representatives of the 
thousands whom Thou hast blessed, go hence to-day, their duty done, 
joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord hath done 
for this great nation. 

And for the generations to come, yet unborn, may this Monument 
which we dedicate to-day to the memory of George Washington stantl 
as a witness for those virtues and that patriotism which, lived, sliall 
secure for them Liberty and Union forever. Amen. 



1 2 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

James C. Welling, LIv. D., President of Columbian Uni- 
versity, then read the followintr address, which had been 
prepared by Hon. W. \V. Corcoran, First \'ice-President of 
the Washington National JMonnment Society: 



■ ADDRESS V,\ HON. \V. W . CORCORAN. 

It lias been said tliat tlie fame of those who spend tlieir lives in tlie 
service of their country is better preserved by the "unwritten memo- 
rials of the heart than by any material monument." The saying is 
pre-eminently true of tlic man whom the people of these United States 
must forever hold in grateful veneration as the one entitled above all 
others to the honored name of Pater Patriiij. Yet the instincts of the 
"bvJt^' heart do nol follow the impulses of our higher nature when, in honor 

of the mighty dead, they call for the commemorative column or the 
stately monument, not, indeed, to preserve the name and fame of an 
illustrious hero and jjatriot, but to signalize the gratitude of the gen- 
erations for whom he labored. 

And so on the 19th of December, 1799, the day after the mortal 
remains of George Washington had been committed to the tomb at 
Mount Vernon, John Marshall, of Virginia, destined soon afterward 
to fill with highest distinction the office of Chief Justice of the United 
States, rose in the House of Representatives and moved, in words 
penned by Henry Lee, of Virginia, that a committee of both Houses 
of Congress should be appointed " to report measures suitable to the 
occasion and expressive of the profound sorrow with which Congress 
is penetrated on the loss of a citizen first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

It is through a long series of years, and through the ebbs and flows 
of much divergent opinion as to the monumental forms in which the 
national homage should most suitably express itself, that the Ameri- 
can people have watched and waited for the^grand consummation 
which we are this day met to celebrate. It is because the stream of 
the naiioiial gratitude was so full and overflow ing that again and again 
it has seemed to sweep away the artificial banks prepared to receix e 
it; but that, in all the windings and eddies of tlie stream, there has 
been a steatly current of national feeling whiih has set in one given 



DciUcatioii of the lVas/iiri<^fon N^atioiial Mointiuciit. 13 

direction, the following liistorical memorantia will sufficiently dem- 
onstrate: 

In pursuance of the resolution adopted by the House of Represen- 
tatives on the motion of John Marshall, both Houses of Congress 
passed the following resolution on the 24th of December, 1799: 

Resolved by flie Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in. Congfess assembled. That a marble monimient be 
erected by the United States in the Capitol at the City of Washington, 
and that the family of General Washington be requested to permit 
his body to be deposited under it; and that the monument be so 
designed as to commemorate the great events of his military and 
political life. 

A copy of this proceeding having been transmitted to .Mrs. Wash- 
ington, she assented, in the following touching terms, to so much of 
the resolution as called for her concurrence: 

Taught by the great example which I have so long had before me 
never to oppose my private wishes to the public will, I need not, I 
cannot say what a sacrifice of individual feeling 1 make to a sense of 
public duty. 

The select committee (Henry Lee, of Virginia, being chairman), 
which was appointed to carry into effect the foregoing resolution, 
made report on the 8th of May, 1800, directing that a marble mon- 
ument be erected by the United States, at the capital, in honor of 
General Washington, to commemorate his services, and to express 
the feeling of the American people for their irreparable loss; and 
further directing that a resolution of the Continental Congress adopted 
August 7, 1783, which had ordered "That an equestrian statue of 
General Washington be erected at the place w^here the residence of 
Congress shall be established" should lie carried into immediate exe- 
cution. 

This latter resolution had directed that the statue of Washington 
be supported by a "marble pedestal on which should be represented 
four principal events of the war in which he commanded in person," 
and which should also bear the following inscription : 

The United States, in Congress assembled, ordered this statue to 
be erected in the year of our Lord 1783, in honor of George Wash- 
ington, the illustrious Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United 
States of America during the war which vindicated and secured their 
liberty, sovereignty, and independence. 



14 Dedicatmi of the Washington National Monument. 

Upon consideration of this resolution, that part relative to the erec- 
tion of an equestrian statue was so amended as to provide that a 
"mausoleum of American granite and marble, in pyramidal form, one 
hundred feet square at the base, and of a proportional height" should 
be erected instead of it. An appropriation in pursuance of this end 
was not then made, but at a later day, on the ist of January, 1801, 
a bill was passed by the House of Representatives appropriating 
two hundred thousand dollars in furtherance of this object. 

In this measure the Senate failed to concur, for reasons easily found 
in the political excitements of that day, while absorbing public ques- 
tions which ensued thereafter, and which finally issued in the war of 
181 2, sufficiently explain why the subject was dropped in Congress 
for many years. 

In the month of February, 1816, the General Assembly of Virginia 
instructed the Governor of that State to open correspondence with 
Judge Bushrod Washington, at that time the proprietor of Mount 
Vernon, with a view to procure his assent to the removal of Wash- 
ington's remains to Richmond, that a proper monument might there 
be erected to the memory of the Hero and Patriot. Immediately 
on the receipt of this intelligence in the Congress, then in session, 
Hon. Benjamin Huger, of South Carolina, who had been a member 
of the Congress of 1799, moved for the appointment of a joint com- 
mittee of both Houses to take action in pursunnce of the proceedings 
had at that time of Washington's death. 

This joint committee recommended that a receptacle for the re- 
mains of Washington should be prepared in the foundation of the 
Capitol, and that a monument should there be erected to his memory. 
But the whole project fell through because, in the mean time, Judge 
AVashington had declined to consent to the removal of Washington's 
remains, on the ground that they had been committed to the family 
vault at Mount Vernon in conformity with Washington's express wish. 

"It is his own will," added Judge Washington, in replying to the 
Governor of Virginia, "and that will is to nic a law which I dare not 
disobey." 

To a similar proposition, as renewed by the Congress of the United 
States in 1832, Mr. John Augustine Washington, wlio had then suc- 
ceeded to the possession of Mount X'ernon, made a similar reply, 
and since that date nil thought of rcniovini: the remains of AVashiuLr- 



Dcdiiaiion of the ]]''as/ii/ii:^/oii National Monmiicnf. 15 

ton from their hallowed resting place to the site of the proposed 
National Monument has been abandoned, and properly abandoned in 
view of the affecting natural considerations which had given a deep 
undertone of remonstrance even to Mrs. \Vashington's reluctant as- 
sent, as extorted from her by the ejaculations of the public grief in 
1799. 

It was precisely at this stage of our history, when all proceedings 
initiated in Congress had been frustrated by the failure to combine 
opinions on some preliminary condition held to be indispensable, 
that the peoj)le of this city, as if despairing of the desired consum- 
mation through the concerted action of both Houses of Congress, 
proceeded to initiate measures of their own looking in this direction. 

In September, 1833, a paragrapli appeared in the National Intelli- 
gencer of this city calling a meeting of the citizens of Washington to 
take the matter in hand. 

In response to that call a meeting of citizens was held at the City 
Hall on the 26th of September, 1833, at which were present Daniel 
Brent, Joseph Gales, James Kearney, Joseph Gales, jr., Peter Force, 
W. \V. Seaton, John McClelland, Pishy Thompson, Thomas Carberry, 
George Watterston, and William Cranch, afterwards Chief Justice of 
the Circuit Court of the District. 

It was at this meeting that the AVashington National Monument 
Society was formed. Chief Justice John Marshall, then seventy-eight 
years of age, having been elected its first President, and Judge Cranch 
the first Vice-President. 

George Watterston, who deserves to be signalized as tlie originator 
of the movement, was the first secretary, and he served in that ca- 
pacity from 1833 till his death in 1854, when he was succeeded by 
John Carroll Brent, who, in turn, was succeeded by Dr. John B. Blake, 
the successor of the latter being the Hon. Horatio King, the j^resent 
secretary of the Society. 

Upon the death of Chief Justice' Marshall, in 1835, '""^ ^^'^^ suc- 
ceeded in the presidency of the Society by ex- President James 
Madison. 

The plan adopted by the Society was to secure the assistance and 
unite the voluntary efforts of the people of the country in erecting a 
national monument to Washington. 

At first, as if to give emphasis to the popular aims of the Society, 
all contributions were limited to the annual sum of one dollar from 



1 6 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

liny one person, the contributors becoming, by that act, members of 
the Society. The collections on this plan had amounted in 1836 to 
the sum of twenty-eight thousand dollars, which was carefully placed 
at interest, the fund standing in the names of Nathan 'iovvson, 
Thomas Munroe, and Archibald Henderson, as trustees. 

In this year advertisements were published inviting designs for the 
Monument from American artists, but placing no limitation upon the 
form of the designs. It was recommended, however, that they 
should "harmoniously blend durability, simplicity, and grandeur." 

The cost of the projected Monument was estimated at not less 
than one million dollars. 

A great many designs were submitted, but the one selected was 
that of Mr. Robert Mills, comprising in its main features a vast stylo- 
bate surmounted by a tetrastyle pantheon, circular in form, and with 
an obelisk six hundred feet high rising from the center. 

In 1846 the restriction upon the subscriptions was removed, and 
in 1847 '^^''C ^\yi\([ amounted to eighty-seven thousand dollars. 

Regularly authorized and bonded collecting agents were appointed 
in all parts of the country, and appeals were made to the generosity 
of the i)ublic. 

Mrs. James Madison, Mrs. John Quincy Adams, and Mrs. Alex- 
ander Hamilton, at the request of the Monument Society, effected an 
organization to assist in collecting funds through the women of the 
country. 

In November, 1847, the Monument Society adopted a resolution 
that the corner-stone be laid on the 22d of February, 1848, provided 
a suitable site could be obtained. 

In January, 1848, Congress passed a resolution granting a site on 
any of the unoccupied public grounds of the City of Washington, to 
be selected by the President of the United States and the Washington 
Monument Society. 'Hie site on Reservation 3 was accordingly 
selected, and title to the land was conveyed to the Society. On the 
29th of January it was -decided to postpone the laying of the corner- 
stone until the 4th of July, 1848. Objections in the mean time having 
been made to the plan for the Monument as proposed by Mr. Mills, 
the Society, pursuant to a report from its committee, in the month of 
April of that year, fixed upon a height of five hundred feet for the 
shaft, leaving in abeyance the surrounding pantheon and base. 

The corner-stone was laid in accordance with this decision of the 



Deification of thr U'asluiii^fon N'olioiuil Afoninnni/. i 7 

Society on the 4th of July, i<S.i.<S, in the ])rcseiice of the iiiciiiIkts of 
the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the ( loveiiuncnt, 
foreign ministers and officers, and a vast concourse of citizens fron) 
all sections of the Union. The ceremonies — Masonic; in ( hara( tcr — 
were conducted under the direction of Hon. 13. IJ. l'"rencli, Ciraiid 
^[aster of the Masonic fraternity for the District of Columbia, and 
were as interesting as they were impressive; the corner-stone being 
rested at the northeast angle of the foundation. The gavel used in 
this ceremony was the one used by General \\'a-shington in laying 
the corner-stone of the Capitol, and is now in the possession of Poto- 
mac Lodge, No. 5, of Free and Accepted Masons of the District of 
Columbia. 

The i)raycr of consecration was offered by the Rev. Mr. Mcjilton, 
and the Oration of the day was pronounced by the Hon. Robert CJ. 
Winthrop, then .Sj^eaker of the House of Representatives. Profoundly 
regretting, as we all do, that this distinguished citizen cannot be with 
us to-day, because of recent illness, we still sincerely rejoice that he 
has sent to us the garland of iiiu c;;::::;.a.-.(li:ig eloquence, to be laid 
on the capstone of the Monument, amid the shoutings of the people 
as they cry, "Grace, grace unto it." 

Among the guests on the stand at the laying of the corner-stone 
were Mrs. Alexander Hamilton (then ninety-one years old), Mrs. 
Dolly Paine Madison, Mrs. John Quincy Adams, George AVashing- 
ton Parke Custis, Chief Justice Tane\', Lewis Cass, Martin Van Buren, 
Millard Fillmore, and many others distinguished as well for their 
social eminence as for their public renown. 

The work, when once begun, progressed steadily, until in 1854 the 
shaft had reached a height one hundred and fifty-two feet above the 
level of the foundation. 

Subsequendy, an addition of four feet was put upon the shaft, 
making its total height one hundred and fifty-six feet, the whole exe- 
cuted at a cost of about three hundred thousand dollars. 

Under the auspices of the Society, as well in its earlier as in its later 
history, blocks of stone for insertion in the interior walls of the Monu- 
ment, and bearing appropriate inscriptions, have been contributed by 
nearly every State and Territory, and by many foreign governments. 

The treasury of the Society having now been exhausted, and all 
efforts to obtain further sums having proved unavailing, the .Society 
presented a memorial to Congress, representing that they were unable 
2 w M 



1 8 Dcdicafioii of the Washiii^lon Nulioiial Moniiiiiriif. 

lo devise any plan likely to succeed, and, under the circunislances, 
asking that Congress should take such action as it might deem proper. 

The memorial was referred in the House of Representatives to a 
select committee of thirteen, of which Mr. Henry May, of Maryland, 
was chairman, and this committee, on the 22d of February, 1855, made 
to the House an eloquent and able report, in wiiich, after a careful 
examination of ilie whole subject, the proceedings of the Society in 
the past were re\ iewed and approved, and an approjjriation of two 
hundred thousand dollars was recommended to be made by Congress 
"on behalf of the people of the United States to aid the funds "of the 
Society; but at this time comjjlications of a political nature arose in 
the management of the Society, the appropriation recommended vk'as 
not made, and, for the same reason, a stop was put to the active 
prosecution of the work on the Monument for a number of years. 

On the 26th of February, 1859, the Congress gave to the Wash- 
ington National Monument Society a formal charter of incorporation, 
the incorporators being Winfield Scott, Walter Jones, John J. Abert, 
James Kearney, Thomas Carberry, Peter Force, William A. Bradley, 
i'hilip R. Fendall, Walter Lennox, Matthew F. Maury, Thomas 
Blagden, J. \\. H. Smith, W. W. Seaton, Elisha VVhittlesey, B. Ogle 
Tayloe, Thomas H. Crawford, \S . W. Corcoran, and John Carroll 
Brent. 

The first meeting of this new board was held in the City Hall, 
March 23, 1859, at which meeting President Buchanan presided. 
The Society again went vigorously to work, issuing public appeals, 
making collections at the polls, and employing every means to secure 
funds for the completion of the Monument. But the condition of the 
country during the decade from i860 to 1870 rendered their efforts 
futile. It was not until the year 1873 that the Society again pre- 
sented a memorial to Congress, recommending the Monument to its 
favorable consideration. 

In the mean time the Society continued their appeals to the country 
for aid according to a plan which contemplated the raising, by sub- 
scriptions from all chartered organizations, of a certain gross sum 
deemed sufficient to complete the Monument, the payment of the 
subscriptions into the hands of the treasurer of the Society being 
contingent ujjon the pledging of the entire sum. A measurable 
success met the efforts of the Society in this direction, a very con- 
siderable sum having been promised bv rosponsihlf bodies, and tht- 



Dedication of the Washington JVational Moninncnt. \ 9 

Societj- desisted from these efforts only when, on the 2d of August, 
1876, an act of Congress, appropriating two hundred thousand dol- 
hirs to continue tlie construction of the Monument, liad l)ecome a law 
of the land. * 

This measure was introduced m the Senate by Hon. John Sherman, 
of Ohio, who ]:>roperly presides at the high festival we hold this day at 
the base of the finished Monument. On the 5th of July, 1S76 (the 
date is significant), he moved the adoption of a joint resolution de- 
claring, after an appropriate preamble, that the Senate and House of 
Representatives m Congress assembled, ''in the name of the people 
of the United States, at the beginning of the second century of the 
national existence, do assume and direct the completion of the Wash- 
ington Monument, in the city of Washington." A bill in pursuance 
of this joint resolution was passed unanimously in the Senate on the 
22d of Julv, in the House of Representatives without opi)Osition on 
the 27th of July, and was signcil by President (Jrant on the 2d of 
August, 1876. 

By this act, which gave a Congressional expression to the national 
gratitude, a Joint Commission was created, to consist of the President 
of the United States, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury De- 
partment, the Architect of the Capitol, the Chief of Engineers of the 
United States Army, and the First Vice-President of the Washington 
National Monument Society, under whose direction and supervision 
the construction of the Monument was placed. 

According to a provision ot the same act, the \V'ashington National 
Monument Society transferred and conveyed to the United States in 
due form all the property rights and easements belonging to it in the 
Monument, the conveyance being legally recorded in the proper court 
register. 

By a further clause of this same act it was providetl : That notlung 
therein should be so construed as to prohibit said Society from con- 
tinuing its organization '• for the purpose of soliciting and collecting 
money and material from the States, associations, and the people in 
aid of the completion of the Monument, and acting in an advisory 
and coojjerative capacity" with the Commission named in the said 
act imtil the completion and dedication of the work. 

I'pon the death of President Madison, in 1836, the constitution of 
the Society had been so amended as to provide that the President o'\ 
the United States should be ex-officio president of the Society. An- 



20 Dediniiion of the Washington Xational Monument. 

drew Jackson was the first ex-o/ficio president. The mayors of Wash- 
ington, and, at a later day, the (Governors of the several States were 
made ex-officio vice-presidents. 

'I'he mayors of Washington thus ( on net led with tlie work were 
John I'. Van Ness, WiUiani A. IJradlcy, Peter Force, ^V. \\ . Seaion, 
Walter l^ennox, John W. Maury, John 'J\ 'lowers, Wilham W. Ma 
gruder, Richard \Vallacii, James G. Jierret, Sayles J. IJowen, and 
Matthew (i. lunery. 

In the roll of the Society's nienibershi]» the following names are 
recorded : 

Chief Justice John Marshall, Roger C. Weightman, ("onnuodore 
John Rodgers, General Thomas S. Jesup, Cieorge Bomford, M. St. 
Clair Clarke, Samuel H. Smith, John McClelland, William Crane h, 
WiUiam Hrent, George Watterston, Nathan Towson, Archibald Hen- 
derson, Thomas Munroe, 'I'homas C'arberry, I\'ter Force, ex-Presi 
dent James Madison, John P. Van Ness, William Ingle, William L. 
Brent, (ieneral Alexander Macomb, John J. .Abert, Philip K. I'en- 
dall, Maj. (len. Winheld Scott, John Carter, General Walter Jones, 
Walter Lennox, T. Hartley Crawford, M. F. Maury, U. S. Navy, 

B. Ogle layloe, Thomas Blagden, John Carroll Brent, James Kear- 
ney, Elisha Whittlesey, W. W. Seaton, J. Bayard H. Smith, W. \\. 
Corcoran, John P. Ingle, James M. Carlisle, Dr. John B. Blake, Dr. 
William Jones, William L. Hodge, Dr. James C. Hall, William B. 
Todtl, James Dunlop, General U. S. Grant, George W. Riggs, 
Henry D. Cooke, Peter G. Washington, William J. McDonald, John 
M. Hrodhead, General William T. Sherman, Dr. Charles H. Nichols, 
1). .\. Watterston, Alexander R. Shei)herd, Fitzhugh Coyle, James 
Ci. Bcrrct, J. C. Kennedy, William A. Richardson, General O. E. 
Babcock, Fdward Clark, Rear-Admiral F. M. Powell, Charles F. 
Stansbury, Frederick I). Stuart, Robert C. Winthrop, Joseph Henry, 
General William McKee Dunn, John C. Harkness, Horatio King, 
Daniel B. Clarke, George W. McCrary, Dr. Josei)h M. Toner, James 

C. Welling, George Bancroft, Rear-Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers. 

In conclusion, let me say that I should be strangely wanting to 
uiy sense of the proprieties belonging to this time and place, if, stand- 
ing here as the representative of the Washington National Monument 
Society, I should fail in this high [)resence and at this solemn mo- 
ment to give emphatic expression to the i)rofound gratitude which is 
due from the Society to the Legislative and Executive Departments 



Dedkat.o)! of ihr Washingian Nat'onal Monumrnt. 21 

of the Government, who have brought to a successful completion 
the patriotic work which the Society was not able to accomplish. 

For the praise of the accomplished engineer of the Army, ("ol. 
Thomas Lincohi Casey, who has here built so solidly and so skill- 
fully, we have only to look up to the finished work of his scientific 
hand, as th.at work stands before us to-day in the strong and even 
poise of its well-balanced architecture. 

The heraldic ensign of Washington bore for its motto the wonls 
Exitus acla prohat, "'Iheir issue puts actions to the proof" The 
actions of Washington, as put to the ])roof of time, have issued in a 
great nation made free and independent uiider his military leader- 
shi|); in a constitutional polity, based on liberty regulated by law, as 
<ievised by the convention of statesmen over whose deliberations he 
presided; in the powerful Federal Government whose energies he 
first set in motion from the high seat of its Chief Fxecutive; in the 
affectionate and grateful recollection of more than fifty millions of 
peoi>le who to-day find in his name and fame their choicest national 
legacy; and, finally, in the veneration and homage of all mankind, 
who, to the remotest ends of the world, have learned to honor in our 
illustrious countryman the best as well as the greatest of the sons of 



men. 



Surely, then, it is glory enough for the Washington National Monu- 
ment Society that its pious labors, as put to the proof of time, have 
issued in the majestic structure which stands before us to-day. and ii 
is glory enough for the Legislative and Fxecutive Departments of 
the (Government that in "assuming and directing the completion df 
•.he Monument" on the fi)undations laid by the peo|)le, they have at 
once redeemed a sacreil national Hedge, and fulfilled a sacred na- 
tional duty, by giving to this great obelisk the culmination and c rou n 
with uiiich it towers above earth and soars heavenward, like the fame 
it commemorates. 



I'lIK MAS (INK: CK RKM ONI F. S. 

The Masonic fledic atory ceremonies were then ])erforme<l by the 
Grand Lodge of Free ami Accejjled Masons of the District of Co- 
lumbia, Myron M. Parker, Most Worshipful (Jrand ^h^ster. He was 
assisted by Ihomas L. Chifelle, R. W. D. G. Master; fose M. V/naga, 
R. W. S. Grand Warden; Jesse W. Lee, jr.. R. W." J. G. Warden; 



2 2 Dcilicatioii of tlie llas/iingfoii Naiional Monument. 

William R. Singleton, R. W. (i. Secretary; C. C. Duncanson, R.W. G. 
Treasurer; Joseph Hamacher, \V. G Lecturer; C. B. Smith, Rev. 
and \V. G. Cha]jlain; H. Dnigman, W. (j. Marshal; Emmett C. El- 
more, W. S. G. Deacon; 'Jhomas F, (jibbs, W. J. G. Deacon; Orvlle 
Drown, W. G. Sword IJearer; O S. Eirmin,W. (}. Pursuivant; Frank 
N. Carver, VV. S. G. Steward; Edward Rern, \V. J. (i. Steward, and 
Thomas j. Edwards, Ciraiid Tiler. 

The following ritual, which is somewhat abridged from that used 
l)y the Order on similar occasions, was then recited. 

Grand Master. R. W. Deputy Grand Master, what is the proper 
implement of your office? 

Deputv Grand Master. The square, Most AVorshipful. 

Grand Master. What are its moral and Masonic uses? 

Deputy Grand Ma.ster. 'J'o square our actions by the square of 
virtue, and prove our work when finished. 

Grand Master. Have you n]-)plied the square to the Obelisk, and 
is the work squared ? 

Deputy Grand Master. I have, and 1 find the corners to be 
square ; the workmen have done their dut\-. 

Grand Master. R. W. Senif)r Grand Warden, what is the proper 
implement of your office? 

Senior CIrand Warden. The level. Most W'orshiitful. 

Grand Master. What is its Masonic use? 

Senior Grand Warden. Morally, it remin(l> us of equality, and 
its use is to prove horizontals. 

Grand Master. Have you applied it, .md arc the courses level? 

Senior Grand Warden. 1 have, and I Jind the courses to be 
level; the workmen have done their duty. 

Grand Master. R. W. Junior Grand Warden, what is the proper 
implement of your office ? 

Junior Grand Warden. The plumb, Most Worshipful. 

Grand Master. What is its Masonic use ? 

Junior Grand Warden. Morally, it tea( hes rectitude of conduct, 
and we use it to try perpendiculars. 

Grand Master. Ha\e \<m aiiplicd it. and lia\e the walls been 
properly erected ? 

Junior Grand Warden. 1 have applied the plumb, and the walls 
have been skillfully erected according to rule; the workmen have 
done their duty. 

Grand Master. The sexeral grand officers ha\ ing reported that 
this structure has been erected by the square, the level, and the 
l)lumb, the corner-stone of which having been laid July 4, 1848, by 
the Grand Master of Masons of the District of (,'olumbia, 1 now, as 
the Grand Master, do pronounce this Obelisk to have been mechan- 
ically completed. 

( "yunior Grand Warden pre sen iai the i:^ol(h-n vessel of corn.) 

Grand Junior \Varden. M.W.Grand Master, it has been ih.e 



Di-ilhalion of (Iw W'asliiiigton Niilioiidl Moiiiimfiif. 23 

immemorial custom to scatter corn as an emblem of nonrishment, I 
therefore present you with this golden vessel of corn. 

Grand Master. I therefore now scatter this the very corn which 
was similarly used on the 2 2d of February, i860, at the dedication 
of the equestrian statue of Washington, at the Circle in this city. In 
the name of the Great Jehovah, to whom be honor and glory, I now 
invoke a continuation of the great prosperity, and all those blessings 
which were then invoked at the laying of the corner-stone of this 
structure, July 4, 1848, and which have been ever since unceasingly 
bestowed upon the inhabitants of this city. 

[Smior Grand Warden presented the silver vessel of wine.) 

Senior Grand Warden. M. W. Grand Master, wine, the emblem 
of refreshment, having been used mystically by our ancient brethren, 
1 present you with this silver vessel of wine. 

Grand Master. In the name of the Holy Saints John, I [)Our out 
this wine to virtue; and may the Great Moral Governor of the Uni- 
verse bless this whole people, and cause them to be distinguished 
for every virtue, as they are for their greatness. 

i Deputy Grand Master presented the silver vessel of oil.) 

Depu'iy Grand Master. M. W. Grand Master, I present to you, 
to be used according to ancient custom, this silver vessel of oil. 

Grand Master." 1 pour out this oil, an emblem of joy, that joy 
which should animate the bosom of every Mason, on the completion 
of this Monument to our distinguished brother, George Washington. 



address C Y grand master M \' R O N M . PARKER. 

It is eminently fitting, upon an occasion like the present, that we, 
as Masons, should associate with these ceremonies certain historic 
relics with which General Washington was intimately connected, 
some of them over a century ago. 

1 his gavel, prepared for the express purpose, was presented to 
Washington and used by him as President of the United States, antl 
also as (irand Master pro tempore in laying the corner-stone of the 
Capitol of the ^ation on the i8th day of September, 1793. Imme- 
diately thereafter he presented it to Potomac Lodge, No. 9, in whose 
possession it has ever since remained. It was used in laying the 
corner-stone of this 01)elisk,July 4, 1848. Also the corner-stone of 
the equestrian statue of Washington at the Circle, and at its dedica- 
tion, February 22, i860. It was likewise used at the laying of tue 
corner-stone of the extension of the Capitol. July 4, 185 i; also by 
the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia at the laying ^i 



34 Dedica'ion of the Washington National Mo?7uvient. 

the corner-stone of the Yorktown Monument, October 18, 1881, and 
at many other public buildings in various States. 

Here behold the sacred volume, belonging to Fredericksburg 
Lodge, No. 4, of Virginia, upon which he took his first vows to 
Masonry, November 4, 17^2, and here the constitution of that lodge 
signed by him. 

Here tlie sacred book, belonging to St. John's Lodge, No. 1, in 
the city of New York, upon which, on the 30th day of April, 1789, 
ho took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. 

Here the great light belonging to Alexandria Washington Lodge, 
No. 22, of Alexandria, Ya., upon which he, as the Worshipful Master 
of that, lodge, received the vows of the initiates made by him. 

This is the apron worn by liim, which was wrought by Madame 
La Fayette, and presented to him by that noble lady, the wife of the 
distinguished (General La Fayette, Washington's compatriot, friend, 
and Masonic brother. 

This golden urn contains a lock of Washington's hair, which was 
]jresented to the (".rand Lodge of Massachusetts, in 1800, by Mrs. 
Washington, and has been transmitted by every Grand Master of 
that Grand Lodge to his succes.sor immediately after his installation. 

This lesser light is one of the three candles which was borne in 
Washington's funeral procession, by Alexandria Washington Lodgt^ 
No. 22, and was taken into the first tomb of Washington, at Mount 
Vernon, where, on December 18, 1799, his mortal remains were de- 
posited. 

Having thus bricHy referred to a few of the historical relics with 
which Brother George Washington was associated, it is pro])er that 
as Grand NLaster I should advert for a few moments to his life as a 
l''reemason, leaving all other phases to be eulogized by the distin- 
guished gentlemen who are to conclude these ceremonies at the 
Gapitol. 

George Washington's initiation into ^L^sonry was during his mi 
norily, and was had under authority of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, 
which admits minors of eighteen to its mysteries. He was maile a 
I'ellow Graft March 3, and a Master ALison .'\ugust 4, r753. While 
Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge he received the Ro\al An li 
degrees, a<-cording to the custom of those days, as a compliment to 
the Master. 

When Comiiiander-in ( 'hief of the .Army, Washington occupied 



Dedication of the Washington National Afomnne/ /. 



•^K 



the chief place in the Masonic procession, on the occasion of St 
John's (Evangehst) day, 1778, at Philadelphia. 

It was after he had l)een Commander-in-Chief of the Army that 
oiM- illustrious Brother rc^ceived from Edmund Randolph (Governor 
of Virginia), as Grand Master, his commission as the first Master of 
Alexandria Lodge, No. 22, of Virginia. 

When the Grand Lodge of Virginia was organized Washington 
was elected Grand Master, an honor he was compelled to decline 
he not hnving at that time served as master of a lodge. In 1780 
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania unanimously nominated (Jenernl 
Washington as (irand Master of Masons of the United States, an office 
to which he would have been elected had not the sentiment an.l 
policy of Masonry at that time been opposed to a National Grap.d 
Lodge. From the latest writings of our distinguished Brother we 
find evidence of his love for and devotion to the principles of Ma- 
sonry. On the 2.1 day of May, ,791, he wrote the Grand Lodge of 
South Carolina that he "recognized with pleasure" his "relations to 
the brethren " who.se principles - lead to purity of morals and benefi- 
cence of action." Still later, in 1793, he wrote the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts, in response to its dedication to him of its '• Hook of 
Constitution," that it is "pleasing to know that the milder virtues of 
the heart are highly respected by the society whose liberal principles 
are foun<le<l on the immutable laws of truth and justice." A-Min he 
urote King David's Lodge, of Rhode Island, that Masonry pi^motes 
" private virtue and public prosperity," and that he should "always 
be happy to advance the interests of the society, an<l to be consid 
ered by them a deserving brother." 

In April, 1798, not three years before his death, he wrote the 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts: " Mv atlarhment to the society will 
•hspose me always to contribute my best endeavors to preserve the 
honor and interest of the (.j-aft." 

November 8, .799, Washington wrote the Grand Lodge ot Mary- 
land, that " the principles and doctrines of Freema.sonry are fcun.led 
m benevolence and to be exercised for the good of mankin.l." 

General Washington never forgot Masonry when a solduT. lie 
encouraged and visited camp lodges and parti.ipated in their labor 
lre.|uently ollinaling as master. Ii was at the old Freeman's tavern 
on the green of Morristown, N. J., in ,777, that General Washington 
lumselt made General La Fayette a Iweemason. Upon one occasion 



26 Dedication of the IVas/iiiigton Ahxtioiial Mciiuiiicnt. 

a detachment of the American Army overcoming a British force, 
captured from them the working tools, jewels, and clothing of a mil- 
itary lodge. (General Washington, upon learning this, ordered res- 
toration, declaring th.it '• he waged no war against philanthropy 
and benevolence." 

1 have dwelt thus somewhat ai length to show that (ieneral Wash- 
ington was devoted to the humane print:iples of Freemasonry from 
his minority to his death, in public and private life, and to show that 
it is especially appropriate for the Masons of this country to partici- 
pate in the imposing ceremonies of to-day. , This cereijJony is not 
ecclesiastical. It is the growth of a sentimei\t ateftgjthe ages, and 
as such will command the respect and admiration oT^jlnankind long 
after this Monument shall have crumbled to the dust. Thus we find 
that the immortal Washington, himself a Freemason, devoted his 
hand, his heart, his sacred honor, to the cause of freedom of con- 
science, of speech, and of action, and from his successful leading has 
arisen this Nation. To him and the memory of his deeds, a grateful 
people have erected this memorial in the capital which he founded, 
and which will bear his name to remotest ages; a monument tower- 
ing above other monuments as he lowered above other men. 

Grand Chapi ain. May the Lord, the giver of every perfect gift, 
bless all who are assembled, and grant to each one, in needful supply, 
the corn of nourishment, wine of refreshment, and oil of joy : Amen' 
Amen! Amen! 

The Most Worshipful Grand Master and the Brethren in unison 
responded : "So mote it be : Amen ! " 

Col. Thomas Liiicoln Casey, of the Corps of Enjj^ineers, U. vS. 
Army, the Chief Knj^ineer and Architect of the Moiinmeiit, 
then formally delivered the stntctiire to the I'resident of the 
Tiiited vStates, in the following words : 

REMARKS OF COL. THOMAS LINCOLN CASRV, C M I E I'" 
KNOINKER. 

Mr. Chairman: The duty has been assigned me of presenting the 
part tnken by the General Go\ernment in the construction of this 
Mi)numcnt,and of delivering it to the I'resi.lent of the United Stati-s. 



Dt'dicatlon of the IVnshlnc^/on National Moiiiiment. 2- 

\'ou have heard ixom the First \'icc-Pre.sidein of the Wa.shington 
National Monument Society of the part taken by that distinguished 
body in the inception and partial construction of the .Monument and 
ot its appeals, both to ihe people of the country and to Congress, for 
assistance in the great work so bra\eiy undertaken. 

Whatever may have been the results of these appeals, no realK 
effective j^roceedings were had in Congress, ha\ ing in view the com- 
pletion of the Monument, until July 5, 1876. On that day, Mr. 
Chairman, you introduced in the .Senate a concurrent resolution, re- 
terring in terms to the Centennial of our \ational independence and 
to the inrtuence of (ieorge Washington in securing that indejK^nd- 
ence, and closing as follows: 

Thereft.re, as a mark of our sense of honor due his name and hi; 
#)mpatriots and associates, our Revolutionary fathers, we, the Senate 
and House of Representatives, in Congress 'assembled, in the name 
of the people of the United States, at this, the beginning of the 
second century of national existence, do assume and direct the com- 
pletion of the Washington Monument in the City of Washington, and 
instruct the committees on appropriations of the respective Houses 
to propose suitable provisions of law to carry this resolution into 
effect. 

Within two days from its introduction this resolution was passed 
unanimously by both Houses, and, in obedience to its instructions, a 
bill for the completion of the ^Vashington Monument was at once 
reported in the House of Representatives, and became a law .\ugust 
2, 1876. That statute appropriated two hundred thousand dollars 
for the completion of the Monument, to be expended in four ecyud 
annual installments; i)rovided for a transfer to the United .States of 
the ownership of the portion of the shaft then built, and created a 
Joint Commission to direct and supervise the construction of the 
Monument, which Connnission was to make a report each vear to 
Congress, 'ihe Commission was to consist of the I'resident of the 
United States, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury I3ei)art- 
ment. the Architect of the Capitol, the Chief of Engineers of the 
I'nited States Army, and the I'irst Vice President of the Washing- 
ton National Monument Society. 

The act further required, "'I'hat, prior to coniiuencing any work 
on the Monument, an examination should be made of its foundation, 
m order to thoroughly ascertain whether it was sufficient to sustain 
the weight of the completed structure, and, if the~same should be 



28 Dedication of the ]Vas/iingto>i National Monument. 

found insufficient, then the further continuance of the work was not 
to be authorized by anything contained ni tlie act until the furtlicr 
action of Congress." 

]'"roni the early days of the construction there had been apprehen- 
sions that the foundation was not of sufficient size to sustain the 
column if carried to the height originally designed. These ap])re- 
hensions, which, just after the laying of the cornor-stone, were shared 
by but few persons, had, as {ax: back as 1 85 3, become wide-spread, and 
were entertained by many intelligent people. In 1873, after a la[)sc 
of twenty years, the question of tlie sufficiency of the foundation was 
again the sultject of discussion, at this lime by a connnittee of the 
House (jf Rejjresentatives, 

'{"his was the select committee of thirteen, created to consider the 
practicabilit)- of completing the Washington Monument bv the limc^ 
of the C'entennial Celebration of the Declaration of Independence. 
July 4, 1876. During their deliberations, they caused s])ecial investi 
gations to l)e made concerning the stability of the existing structure. 
These investigations and the reports were made by cai>able engineers, 
and the conclusions drawn by them were to the effect that the exist- 
ing foundation should not be subjected to an)- additional load what 
ever; in other words, that it would be unsafe to increase the lu-iglil 
of the incomplete shaft. 

It was hardly to be expected that the further examinations recpiired 
by the act of August, 1876, would disclose anythmg different as to 
the condition of the foundation, ne\ertlieless the Joint Commission 
secured the services of another board of experienced engineers, who, 
after careful borings, examinations, and tests of the earth of the site, 
and due deliberation, reported on the 10th of April and 151)1 of June, 
1877, that the existing foundation was of insulhcient s[)read and depth 
to sustain the weight of the lompleted stiucture, but that it was feasi 
ble to liring the foundation to the required stability b\ hooping-in the 
earth u|)()n which it stood. These opinions were concurred in b\ most 
of the engineers who considereil the subject, while the\ were i|aite 
as unanimous in the belief that to excavate beneath and put a new 
foundation under the old one would be hazardous in the extreme. 

( )n the 8th of November, 1877, the Joint Commission made its fust 
ii|iort to Congrt'ss, announcing the decision of the engnieerN, and this 
report led to the enactment of the joint resolution of June 14, 1S78. 
authorizing the Joint Connnission to expend the sum of thirty six 



nrdiuUioii of llir ]]',Ts/iii/x'/nii Yatioihil }[oniimrn(. zq 

thousand dollars, if ihey deemed it advisalile, in givin;^ j;reater sta- 
bility to the foundation. 

Two years had now elapsed since llie creation of tlie Joint Com- 
mission. They at once sccuretl the services of an engineer and his 
assistant, and directed the chief to i)rei)arc a ])roject for strengthening^ 
the existing foundation so that the Obelisk could be carried to the de 
sired height. This project, which necessarily included the form an<i 
dimensions of the finished Monument, was completeil and approved 
(Jctober i, 187S, and active operations were immediately com- 
menced. The project contemplated firyt, ttie digging away of the 
earth from around and beneath the outer portions of the old founda- 
tion and replacing it with Portland cement concrete masonry; then, 
in removing a portion of the old masonry foundation itself from be- 
neath the walls of the shaft and substituting therefor a continuous 
Portland cement concrete enlargement extending out over the new 
subfoundation. The weakness of the old foundation lay in the fad 
that It was too shallow and co\ered an area of ground insufhcient 
to sustain the pressure of the completed work. The strengthening 
consisted in the enlargement of the foundation by spreading it o\ er 
a greater area and sinking it a greater depth into the earth. 'I he 
work of excavating beneath the Monument was commenced fanuary 
28, 1879, and the new foundation was finished May 29, 1880. It 
was impossible to properly enlarge the foundation with the funds 
granted in the joint resqlution of June 14, 1878. A careful estimate 
of the cost, which accompanied the original project, amounted to 
about one hundred thousand dollars, and accordingly by the joint 
resolution of June 27, 1879, ^ further sum of sixty-four thousand dol- 
lars was granted to complete the foundation. This proved to be 
more than sufficient, as the foundation cost but ninety-four thousand 
four hundred and seventy-four dollars. 

.\s completed, the new foundation covers two and a lialf times as 
much area and extends thirteen and a half feet deeper than the old 
one. Indeed, the bottom of the new work is only two feet above the 
level of high tides in the Potomac, while the water which permeates 
the earth of the Monument lot stands six inches above this bottom. 
The foundation now rests upon a bed of fine sand some two feet in 
thickness, and this sand stratum rests upon a bed of bowlders and 
gravel. Borings have been made in this gravel deposit for a depth 
of over eighteen feet without passing through it, and so uniform is 



30 Dedication of the ]Vashiu^^toii Naliotial Monument. 

tlie cliaractcr of the material upon which the foundation rests that 
the settlements of the several corners of the shaft have differed from 
each other by only the smallest subdivisions of the inch. The pres- 
sures on the earth beneath the foundation are nowhere greater than 
the experiences of years have shown this earth to be able to sustain, 
while the strength of the masonry in the foundation itself is largely 
in excess of the strains brought upon it. l"he stability of this base 
is assured against all natural causes except carthfjuakes or the wash- 
ing out of the sand bed beneath the foundation. 

Having enlarged the foundation, the work upon the shaft was 
speedily commenced. Tlie summer of 1880 was mostly taken u^j in 
building an iron frame within the shaft, preparing the hoisting ma- 
chinery, and collecting the granite and marble needed in the construc- 
tion. The first marl)le block was set in tlie shaft on tlie 7th of Au- 
gust, 1880, and the last stone was placed at the level hve hundred on 
the 9th of August, 1884, tlius consuming four seasons in finishing the 
shaft. The topmost stone of tlie pyramidion was set on the 6th of 
December, 1884, thus essentially completing the Obelisk. Minor 
additions and modifications in the details of the interior of the shaft 
are still to be made, and some filling, grading, and [jlauling are required 
for the terrace, but no work is proposed that can change the existing 
appearance or proportions of the Monument. 

The masonry constructed by the Government is the best known to 
tlie engineering art, and the weight is so distributed that, subjected to 
a wind pressure of one hundred pounds per square foot on any face, 
corresponding to a wind velocity of one hundred and forty-five miles 
per hour, the Monument would have a large factor of safety against 
overturning. The marble is of the same kind as that in the mono- 
lithic columns of the Capitol, has a fine grain, is close and compact 
in texture, free from disintegrating impurities, and in this climate will 
endure for ages. 

There is not time, nor is this the occasion, to eiiter into the en- 
gineering details of the ( (jn^truclion, to discuss all the strains and 
stre.sses in tlie se\ eral parts of the work, or the factors of safety against 
destructive forces. It is sufficient to say, that although^ the dimen- 
sions of the foundation base were originally planned withf)ut due re- 
gard to tlie tremendous forces to be brought into jtlay in building so 
large an obelisk, the resources of modern engineering science have 



Diifuali)n of lite ]]'as/ii>i^h»i Ahitional Momtiiiciit. 31 

supplied means for the completion of the grandest monuniental column 
ever erected in any age of the world. 

In its proportions the ratios of the dimensions of the several parts 
of the ancient Egyptian obelisk have been carefully followed. 

The entire height has been made slightly greater than ten times 
the breadth of base, producing an obelisk that, for grace antl delicacy 
of outline, is not excelled by any of the larger Egyptain monoliths, 
while in dignity and grandeur it surpasses any that can be mentioned. 

Mr. President: For and in behalf of the Joint Commission for ihc 
completion of the Washington Monument I deliver to you this 
column. 

Senator Sherman then introduced "the President of the 
United States, ' ' and as Mr. Arthur stepped forward he was 
loudly applauded. When silence was restored he read the 
followin<r remarks : 



PRESIDENT ARIHUR's DEDICATORY ADDRESS. 

Fellow-Countrymen: Before the dawn of the century whose 
eventful years will soon have faded into the past, when death had 
but lately robbed this Republic of its most beloved and illustrious citi- 
zen, the Congress of the United States pledged the faith of the Nation 
that in this city, bearing his honored name, and then, as now, the seat 
of the General Government, a monument should be erected " to com- 
memorate the great events of his military and political life." 

The stately column that stretches heavenward from the plain 
whereon we stand bears witness to all who behold it that the cove- 
nant which our fathers made their children have fulfilled. 

In the completion of this great work of patriotic endeavor there 
is abundant cause for national rejoicing; for while this structure shall 
endure it shall be to all mankind a steadfast token of the affection- 
ate and reverent regard in which this people continue to hold the 
memorv of Washington. Well may he ever kce]) the foremost place 
in the hearts of his countrymen. 

The faith that never faltered, the wisdom that was broader and 
deeper than any learning taught in schools, the courage that shrank 



Oy 



32 Drdinrlion of I he ll'iis/ilir^fivi XatiPiial Mvnunirtit. 

from no peril ami was ilismayctl by no dcleat, the loyalty that kept 
all seltisli ])iir])Osc subordinate to the demancls of patriotism and 
honor, the sagacity that displayed itself in camp and cabinet alike, 
and above all that harmonious union of moral and intellectual <juali- 
lies which has never found its parallel among men; these are the at- 
tributes of character which the intelligent ihuught of this ( eiituiy 
ascribes to the grandest figure of the last. 

Hut other and more elo(]uenl lips than mine will to-day rehearse to 
)Ou the story of his noble life and its glorious achievements. 

'I'o myself has been assigned a sim[)ler and mon; formal duty, in 
fultillment of which ] do now, as J'residenl of the ITnited States and 
in behalf of the people, receive this Monument from the hands of its 
builder, and declare it dedicated from this time forth to the immortal 
name and memory of (ieorge Washington. 

I*residcnl .\rlhtir wa.s freqiiciil]\- inlcrnipted 1)\- applause, 
and when he liad coiichidcd the entire a.s.senibla<;c joined in 
repeated rounds of clicers, many waving their hats and 
liandkerchiefs. It was with some difficnlty that Senator 
vShernian eould regain the attention of the audience, btit 
when Ite did, he annoiniced that the dedication ceremonies 
at the Monument were completed, and that tho.se present 
would move in procession to the Hall of the House of Re])- 
resentatives, in the Capitol, where the orations would be 
delivered. 



No sooner were llie exercises concluded than the military 
were again formed in column, the invited guests entered 
their carriages, and the procession took up the line ol march 
for the Capitol, bands playing, drums beating, colors and 
banners fluttering in the wind, while the cannon at the 



Dedication of f/ic IVashingfon A^ational Monument. T^^i 

iia\\-\arcl, at the artiller\' headquarters, and at P^ort IMe\cr 
fired niiniUe guns. 

The following order of procession was observed: 

Mar.>hai, or THE Day. — I.icutcnant-Cicneral Pliilip II. Sheridan, 
U S. Army. 

Chief of Staff. — IJx t. Jjrig. Gen. .\lbc-rt Ordway, U. S. Volunteers. 

Personal Aides-de-Canip. — Lieut. Col W. J. \'olkniar. V . .S. Army, 
Mr. Linden Kent. 

Aides-dc-Canip. — Lieut. Col. ]\L V. Sheridan, U. S. Army; Lieut. 
Col. James Gregory, U. S. Army; Capt. S. K. iJlunt, L'. S. Army; 
Mr. Walker Blaine; Mr. Sevellon A. Brown ; Capt. Francis V. Greene, 
U. S. Army; Col. H. L. Cranford, U. S. Volunteers; Medical Di- 
rector J. ^L Browne, \j . S. Navy; Mr. H. Grafton Dulaney; Lieut. 
T. B. M. ALison, U. S. Navy; Col. Amos Webster, U. S. Volunteers; 
Mr. Edward McCauley; Lieut. W. H. Emory, jr., U. S. Navy; Capt. 
S. S. Burdett, U. S. Volunteers; Maj. Green Clay Cioodloe, L. S. 
Marine Corps; Mr. R. J. Dangerfield; Bvt. Maj. Clayton Mc- 
Michael, U. S. Volunteers; Bvt. ."NFaj. John 15. Fassit, U. S. Volun- 
teers; Bvt. Lieut. Col. J. P. Nicholson, U. S. \'olunteers; Mr. Mills 
Dean; Bvt. Lieut. Col. George Truesdell, U. S. Volunteers; Capt. 
L N. Burritt, U. S. Volunteers; Bvt. Col. Archibald Hopkins, U. S. 
Volunteers; Capt. John M. Carson, U. S. Volunteers. 

Honorary Staff, representing States and Territories. — Alabama, Mr. 
John H. Morgan; Arkansas, General James C. Tappan; California, 
Mr. Thomas C. Quantrell; Colorado, Maj. J. V. W. Vandenburgh; 
Connecticut, General" C. P. Graham; Delaware, General J. Parke 
Postles; Florida, Col. Wallace S. Jones; Georgia, Col. Clifitbrd W. 
Anderson; Illinois, G^gneral Green B. Raum; Indiana, Col. R. \V. 
McBride; Iowa, Col. William P. Hepburn; Kansas, General C. W. 
Blair; Kentucky, Col. J. B. Castleman; Louisiana, Col. Charles A. 
Larendon ; Maine, General John M. Brown; Maryland, Col. E. L. 
Rodgers; Massachusetts, Mr. A. A. Hayes; Michigan, Col. H. M. 
Duffield; Minnesota, Col. C. W. Johnson; Mississippi, Col. J. M. 
•McCaskill; Missouri, Hon. J. W. Stone; Nebraska, Col. L. W. Colby; 
Nevada, Hon. John H. Kinkead; New Hampshire, (ieneral J. N. 
Patterson; New Jersey, Col. S. Meredith Dickinson ; New York, Maj. 
Alexander H. Davis; North Carolina, Mr. Fred Stith; Ohio, Col. C. 
A. Layton; Oregon, Mr. E. D. Appleton; Pennsylvania, Col. P. L. 
Goddard; Rhode Lsland, Col. F. M. Bates; South Carolina, Col. J. 
A. Simons; lennessee. General A. B. Upshur; Te.xas, ('ol. J. 1^. 
Labatt; Vermont, General William AV'ells; Virginia, Maj. L. Bl ick- 
ford; West Virginia, Col. Robert White; Wisconsin, General J. C. 
Starkweather; Arizona, Hon. J. W. Eddy; Dakota, Col. William 
Thompson; Idaho, Maj. William Hyndman; Montana, Hon, Martin 



34 DciUcation of llic IVas/iiin^ioii National Moiiu incut. 

Magiiinis; New Mexico, ilon. F. A. .Man/.anures; Utah, Mr, liuiu- 
plireys McMaster; Washington, Hon. C. S. Voorhees; Wyoming, 
Hon. M. E. Post. 

Escort to the Marshal of the Day. — I'lie First Troop Philadelphia 
City Cavalry, organized in 1774, Capl. F. Burd (jrubb, commanding. 



THE FIRST J) I V I SION. 

Marshal. — Bvt. Maj, Gen. R. B. Ayers, U. S. Army. 

Staff. — Bvt. Lieut. Col. George Mitchell, U. S. Army; First Lieut. 
Sebree Smith, U. S. Army; First I.ieut. Medorem Crawford, U. S. 
Army; First Lieut. H. R. Lemly, U. S. Army; Second Lieut. M. C. 
Richards, U. S. Army; Second Lieut. AV. VValke, U. S. Army ; Second 
Lieut. H. L. Hawthorne, U. S. Army; Mr. L H. McDonald, Mr. W. 
J. Johnson, Mr. Arthur D. Addison. 

Battalion of Second U. S. Artillery, Lieut Col. Loomis L. Lang- 
don. 

Battalion of U. S. Artillery, Bvt. Lieut. Col. L. L. Livingston. 

Light Battery A, Second U. S. Artillery, Capt. Frank B. Hamil- 
ton. 

Battalion U. S. Marine Corps, Capt. John H. Higbee. 

The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, of Massachusetts, 
(organized in 1638), commander, Capt. Augustus Whittemore; first 
lieutenant, Lieut. Col. E. B. Blasland; second lieutenant, Lieut. G. 
H. Gibson ; adjutant, First Lieut. J. P. Frost, preceded by the Salem 
Cadet Band. 

The Governor's Foot Guard, of Hartford, Conn, (organized in 
1 771), Maj. John C. Kinney; Capt. J. C. Pratt; Lieuts. T. C. Nae- 
dele, J. Robert Dwyer, and F. C. Clark. 

The German Fusiliers, of Charleston, S. C. (organized in 1775), 
Capt. Henry Schachte ; First Lieut. Henry B.Schroder; Second 
Lieut. H. Fischer. 

Richmond Light Infantry Blues, of Richmond (organized in 1793), 
Capt. Sol. Cutchins. 

Washington Light Infantry Corps, of the District of Columbia, 
Lieut. Col. William G. Moore. 

Union Veteran Corps (Old Guard), of the District of Columbia, 
Capt. S. E. Thomason. 

Washington Continentals, of the District of Columbia, Capt. 
George E. Timms. 

Emmet Guard, of the District of Columbia, Capt. W. H. Muri)hy. 

Washington Rifle Corps, of the District of Columbia, Capt. George 
F. Ham mar. 

Butler Zouaves, of the District of Columbia, Capt. Charles B. Fisher. 

Washington Cadet Corps, of the District of Columbia, Maj. C. A. 
Fleetwood. 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument, 35 

Capital City Guard, of the District of Columbia, Capt. Thomas S. 

Kelly. 

Capitol City Guards, of the District of Columbia, Capt. W. P. 

Gray. 

National Rifles, of the District of Columbia, L.ieut. J. O. Manson. 
accompanied by the National Rifle Cadets, Lieutenant Domer. 

Lawrence Light Guard, Company E, Fifth Regiment Infantry, 
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, Capt. J. E. Clarke. 

Detroit Light Infantry, of Micliigan, First Lieut. George W. Corns. 

Alexandria Light Infantry, of Virginia, Capt. G. A. Mushback. 

Washington High school Cadets, of the District of Columbia, Maj. 
Frederick Sohon. 

Corcoran Cadet Corps, of the District of Columbia, Capt. E. C. 

Edwards. • • 'n- 

St. John's Academy Cadet Corps, of Alexandria, Va., Maj. William 

L. Pierce. ' 

THE SECONM) DIVISION. 

Marshal.— IsW]. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia. 
Staff.— Co\. Thomas Smith; Maj. J. Courtland H. Smith; Mr. 
Henry Dangerfield; Mr. Bernard P. Green; Dr. Arthur Snowden ; 
Col. Frederick A.Windsor; Maj. S. A. Robertson; Mr. Barbour 
Thompson; Mr. Eppa Hunton, jr.; Mr. W. L. Smoot; Mr. J. G; 
Beckham. 

This division was headed by carriages, containing the invited guests, 
viz : The Congressional Commission, the Orators and Chaplains of 
the Day, the Washington National Monument Society, members and 
ex-members of the Joint Commission for the completion of the Monu- 
ment, the Engineer of the Monument, his assistants, and detail of 
workmen, the President of the United States, members of the Cabinet, 
President and Vice-President elect of the United States, ex-Presidents 
of the United States, Judges of the Supreme Court and other Federal 
courts, the Diplomatic Corps, the Governors of States, accompanied 
by their respective staffs, the Senate, The House of Representatives, 
officers of the Army and Navy, the Society of Cincinnati. 

The Masonic fraternity followed, marshaled by Harrison Dmg- 
man, marshal of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, who 
had as his aides L. D. Wine, Will A. Short, J. C. Dulin, T. G. Lock- 
erman, Charles G. Smith, and H. A. Johnston. The organizations 
in line were : 

Grand Commandery, Knights Templar, of Maryland. 

Grand Commandery, Knights Templar, of Virginia. 

Grand Encampment of United States, Knights Templar. 

Royal Arch Masons of the District of Columbia. 

Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the District of Columbia. 

General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States. 



36 Dedicafion of tJit W'ashiiif^toii National Mo?uim('ni. 

Master Masons of the District of Columbia. 

Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22, Alexandria, \'a. 

Washington Lodge, No. 3, Baltimore, Md. 

Saint John's Lodge, No. 1, New York City. 

Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, Fredericksburg, Va. 

Dupont Lodge, of Dupont xMills, Delaware. 

Delegations from the Grand Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons 
of West Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Delaware, Dakota, New Hanii)- 
shire, 'J exas, California, Maryland, New York, Virginia, North Caro 
lina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. 

'I'he (jrand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the District 
of Columbia, ]\L W. Grand Master Myron M. Parker. 



THIRD DIVISION. 

Manhal.—^MX.. Brig. Gen. W. W. Dudley, U- S. Volunteers. 

Stajf. — General William Birney, Lieut. Col. F. G. Butterfield, Lieut. 
Col. G. C. Kniffin, Lieut. Col. E. C. Ford, Surg. T. B. Hood, Maj. 
E. W. Clark, Capt. J. B. Tanner, Capt. Fred. Mack. 

Union Veteran Corps (First Company), Ca|)t. M. A. Dillon, a.cting 
as escort to the Grand Army of the Republic. 

George Washington Post, No. 103, Ci. A. R. of New York, Gen- 
eral M. T. McMahon commander. 

Grand Army of the Republic, Department of the Potomac, N. M. 
Brooks, commander; John Cameron, assistant adjutant-general. 

John A. Rawlins Post, No. i, H. E. Weaver, commander. 

Kit Carson Post, No. 2, Marcus L. Hopkins, commander. 

Lincoln Post, No. 3, H. H. Smith, commander. 

O. P. Morton Post, No. 4, Charles H. Shoater, commander. 

George G. Meade Post, No. 5, John B. Dowd, commander. 

John F. Reynolds Post, No. 6, S. E. Faunce, commander. 

James A. Garfield Post, No. 7, J. H. Jochum, commander. 

Burnsldc Post, No. 8, C H. Ingram, commander. 

(Charles Sumner Post, No. 9, George M. Arnold, commander. 

Farragut Post, No. 10, W. T. Van Doren, commander. 

The Valley Forge Memorial Association. 

The Association of the Boston Light Guard, of Massachusetts 
(composed of members who participated in laying corner-stone of 
Monument). 

'I'he Independent Order of Rechabites, George W. Shoemaker, 
District Chief Ruler (participated in laying corner stone of Monu- 
ment). 

The Journeyman Stone-Cutters' Association (composed of men 
who cut the stone for the Monument). 

(jcrman associations, under Mr. A. E. L. Keese, marshal, com- 
l)rising: Association of Eighth Battalion, District of Columbia Vol- 



DcdiaUion of tin- ]Vas/iiiii;;foii N'aiional Moninu-iit. 37 

iiiUcers; (lerman Veterans of Washington ; Clermania Mitnnenhor; 
Cieiinan Democratic Association. 

Ijrotherhood of Cari)enterf, Union No. i, of Washington, D. C. 

13rotherhood of Carpenters, Union No. 29, of Bahimore. Md. 

President's Mounted Guard, Alaj. George A. Arms. 

\'irginia Club (mounted), Capt. W. A. Dinwiddie. 

Maryland Club (mounted), Capt. B. W. Summey. 

Washington Club (mounted), Capt. Thomas K. Hunter. 

(icorgetown Club (mounted), Capt. A. Fox. 

Fire Department of the District of Columbia, Chief Kngineer 
Martin Cronin, with their steam fire engines and apparatus. 



The procession moved from the Monument grounds 
through vSeventeenth street to the new vState, War, and 
Navy Department building, and thence in front of the Kx- 
ecutive Mansion, through Fifteenth street into Pcnns\lva- 
nia aventie. 

This national thoroughfare was decorated with flags and 
bunting, while many thousand spectators on stands and on 
the sidewalks formed a brilliant framework for the ])a.ssiug 
pageant. When the head of the column had reached the 
Capitol a halt was ordered, and the President of the United 
vStates, who occupied an open carriage drawn by four horses, 
passed the military to the Capitol. On his arri\-al there, 
after a brief delay, the President took his positioiT on a re- 
viewing stand which had been erected directly in front of 
the Capitol, where he was joined b\' the members of his 
Cabinet, several Senators, Representatives, and diplomats. 

The column then passed in review, the officers .saluting as 
they passed. General vSheridau, with his moiuiled staff, 



38 DedicaHoii of the Washington National MoJiument. 

wheeled out after they had passed the reviewing stand and 
took their position opposite the President. It took upwards 
of an hour for the military and civic organizations to march 
past in review, and as each body left the Capitol Grounds it 
was dismissed to the command of its head. 



EXERCISKS AJT THK CAPiaOL. 

The seats had been removed from the floor of the Hall of 
the House of Representatives, which was filled with chairs, 
assigned to the invited guests, viz: The Senators, Repre- 
sentatives, and Delegates composing the Forty-eighth Con- 
gress; the President of the United States, the President- 
elect, the Vice-President-elect, and the ex-Presidents; the 
Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court; 
the Cabinet officers, the Admiral of the Navy, the Lieu- 
tenant-Gencral of the Army, and the officers of the Army 
and Navy who, by name, had received the thanks of Con- 
gress; the Chief Justice and Judges of the Court of Claims, 
and the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme 
Court of the District of Columbia; the Diplomatic Corps; 
the Commissioners of the District, Governors of vStates and 
Territories, tlie general officers of the Society of the Cin- 
cinnati; the Washington National IMonument Societv, 
members and ex-members of the Joint Connnission for the 
Completion of the Monument, engineers of the Monument, 
a detail of workmen, and other guests invited to the floor. 

The Ivxecutive Gallery was reserved for the invited 
guests of the President, the families of the nnuibeis of the 



DeJkation of the Washington National Monument. 39 

Cabinet, and the families of the Supreme Court. The 
Diplomatic Gallery was reserved for the families of the 
members of the Diplomatic Corps. The Reporters' Gallery 
was reserved exclusively for the use of journalists, and the 
remaining galleries were thrown open to the holders of 
tickets thereto. 

The Marine Band occupied the vestibule in the rear of 
the Speaker's chair, and performed a succession of patriotic 
airs. 

The House of Representatives having been called to order 
by Mr. Speaker Carlisle, at a quarter past one o'clock p. m., 
Messrs. Dorsheimer, Tucker, and Cannon were appointed a 
committee to wait on the Senate and inform that body that 
the House was ready to receive it, and to proceed with the 
ceremonies which had been appointed to take place in the 
Hall of the House. 

This duty was performed, and at half-past two o'clock the 
members of the Senate, following their President pro ton- 
pore and their Secretary, and preceded by their Sergeant- 
at-Arms, entered the Hall of the House ot Representatives 
and occupied the seats reserved for them on the right and 
left of the main aisle. 

The Hon. George V. Edmunds, a Senator from Vermont, 
President //v; tempore oi \\\q. Senate, occupied the vSpeaker's 
chair, the Speaker of the House sitting at his left. The 
Chaplain of the House, Rev. John S. Lindsay, D. D., and 
Rev. S. A. Wallis, of Pohick Church, near Mount Vernon, 
Virginia, sat at the Clerk's desk. The chairman of the 
Joint Committee of Arrangements, the orators, and the 
other officials designated were seated in accordance witli llu- 
arrangements of the Joint Committee of Arragemcnts. 



40 Dedication of t/w IVas/ii/igto/i Ahitional Moniiniciit. 

Tlie President pro Icntpore of the vSenate lia\'in.t4 ra])ped 
with his i^avel, there was silence, and he said: 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Rejjiesenlatives, you are 
assembled, jjursuant to the concurrent order of the two Houses, to 
celebrate the completion of the Monument to the memory of the first 
President of the United States. It is not only a memorial but an 
inspiration liiat shall live through all the generations of our i)osterily, 
as we may hope, which we this day inaugurate and celel)rate by tiie 
ceremonies that have been ordered l)y the two Houses. 

Rev. vS. A. Wallis, of Pohick Church, near Monnt Vernon, 
Virginia, then offered the following pra^'er: 

Almighty and everlasting God, Lord of heaven and earth, who 
alone rulest over the nations of the world, and disj^osest of them ac- 
cording to Thy good pleasure, we praise Thv hol\' name for the bene- 
fits we commemorate this day. 

^^'onderful things didst Thou for us in the davs of our fathers, in 
the times of old. For they gat not the land in ])ossession bv their 
sword, neither did their own arm sa\e them, but Thy right hand and 
the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favor unto them. 
I'.specially do we render Thee our heart v thanks for Th\- servant 
George Washington, whom J'hou gavest to be a commander and a 
governor unto this j)eople, and didst l)y him accomplish for it a great 
and mighty deli\ erance. And as we are now gathered before Tiiee 
in these Halls, we bless Thee for the government antl cixil (.u'der 
'J'hou didst establisli tiirough him. Grant that it ma\- be upheld b\' 
tliat righteousness which exalteth a nation, and that diis ])hice mav 
evermore be the habitation of judgment and justice. Let Thy bless 
ing rest upon our Chief Magistrate and his successors in all genera- 
tions, (irant each in his time those hea\enl)- graces that are requi- 
site for so high a trust ; that the laws may l)e impartiallv administered 
to the ])unishment of wickedness and \ice, and t ) die maintenance 
of Thy true religion and virtue. ^Ve also humbly beseech Thee for 
our Senate and Representatives in Congress assembled that Thou 
wouldst l)e jjleased to direct ail their consultations to the advance- 
ment of 'l'h\' i^lorx, the good of Thv Cluircli. the safetw lionor, and 



Dciiication of the Washington National Monument. 4 1 

welfare of Thy i;eo|)le, that all things may be so ordered ami settled 
by their endeavors upon the best and surest foundations, that peace 
and Hai)]Mness, truth and justice, religion and piety may be established 
among us for all generations. \\'e pray Thee for our judges and offi- 
cers that they may judge the people with just judgment, be no re- 
sjjecters of jjersons, and hear both the small and the great in his 
cause (), Lord C.od of Hosts, be pleased to save and defend our 
Army and Navy, that each may be a safeguard to these United 
States, both by land and sea, until Thou dost fulfill I'hy word, that 
nation shall not lift u]) sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war an\- more. I'»e with those who have been appointed to speak 
unto us this da\ as they recount the deeds of old time, Thy marvel- 
ous works, and the judgments of Thy mouth, (iive them grace to 
utter such words as mav stir us up to emulate the \irtues of our fore- 
fathers, so that we may transmit the Republic to our posterity high 
in praise and in name and in honor. 

Let Th\' richest blessings rest upon our cxuiiitry at large; may we 
lend a true obedience to the laws cheerfully and willingly for con- 
science' sake. Let no causeless divisions weaken us as a nation, but 
grant that we ma\- be knit together more and more in the bonds of 
peace and imil\-. Preserve us from the dangers now threatening 
society, and enable each of us, high and low. rich and poor, to do his 
dutv in th.u stale of life unto which Thou hast called him. So we 
that are 'i'h\' people and sheep oS Thy pasture shall give Thee thanks 
fore\er. and will alwavs be showing forth Thy praise from generation 
to generation. These and all other benefits of Thy good ])rovidence 
we humbly beg in the name and through the mediatioii of Jesus 
(■hri>t our most blessed Lord and .^a\ior. Amen. 

The President //7; IcDipoi-c oi the Senate, after the Marine 
l>an(l had played ''Hail Coltiinbia, " said: 

Oendemen of the Senate ;ind House of Representatives, the iirst 
jjroceeding in order is the oration by Hon. Robert (.". Wmthrop, of 
NLissachusetts The Chair is sorr\- to announce that .Mr, \Vinthro]\ 
from indisposition, is unable to attend. According to the arrange- 
ments of the committee the oration will be now read by Hcjn. lohn 
I). Long, a member of the House of Representati\es fr(jm the State 
of Massachusetts. 



Dedicaiion of ihe Washington National Monument. 



ORATION BY HON. ROI5ERT C. WINTHROP.* 

President Arthur^ Senators and Representatives of the 

United States : 

By a joint Resolution of Congress you have called upon 
nie to address you in this Hall to-day on the completion of 
yonder colossal monument to the Father of his Country. 
Nothing less imperative could have brought me before you 
for such an effort. Nearly seven and thirty years have 
passed away since it was my privilege to perform a similar 
service at the laying of the corner-stone of that monument. 
In the prime of manhood, and in the pride of official sta- 
tion, it was not difficult for me to speak to assembled thou- 



* Note by Mr. VVinthrop' s son to a panipltlet edition of his oration. — -On being 
informed of the passage of the joint resolution designating him as the orator at tiic 
dedication of the Monument, Mr. Winthrop wrote to Senator Sherman, of Ohio, 
chairman of the Monument Commission, and to Senator Morrill, of Vermont, one 
of its leading members, to express, not merely his deep sense of the honor con- 
ferred upon him, but also his great doubt whether he ought not respectfully to de- 
cline it. He had regarded his centennial oration at Yorktown, in 1881, as tlie 
closing effort of the series of historical addresses which he had been privileged to 
pronounce at different periods, and he hesitated to risk impairing the success of the 
present celebration by subjecting it to the contingencies of failing health and 
strength to which a man far advanced in his seventy-sixth year would necessarily 
be liable. Senators Sherman and Morrill, however, both replied that the interest 
of the occasion would be greatly enhanced if the orator whose name was associ- 
ated with the inception of the Monument should officiate at its completion, and 
strongly urged Mr. Winthrop to accept the appointment, whicli he eventually did, 
though not without misgivings, which have been unhappily justified. 

Two months only before the appointed time, and after he had substantially pre- 
pared what he proposed to say, Mr. Winthrop fell dangerously ill of pneumonia, 
his recovery from which was too slow to admit of the delivery of his oration in 
person. Under these circumstances, and at the joint request of the Monument 
Commission and of Mr. Winthrop, it was most kindly and effectively read for liini 
by lion, John Davis I.ong, late Governor of Massachusetts, and now a niemlit-r of 
the United Stales House of Keiiresenlalives. 

R. C. W., |k. 



Dedication of tJie Washington National Alonument. 43 

sands in the open air, without notes, under the scorching 
rays of a midsummer sun. But what was easy for me then 
is impossible for me now. I am here to-day, as I need not 
tell you, in far other condition for the service you have a.s- 
signed me — changed, changed in almost everything except 
an inextinguishable love for my Country and its Union and 
an undying reverence for the memory of Washington. On 
these alone I rest for inspiration, assured that, with >our in- 
dulgence, and the blessing of God, which I devoutly invoke, 
they will be sufficient to sustain me in serving as a medium 
for keeping up the continuity between the hearts and hands 
which laid the foundation of this gigantic structure and 
those younger hearts and hands which have at last brought 
forth the capstone with shoutings. It is for this you have 
summoned me. It is for this alone I have obeyed your call. 
Meantime I cannot wholly forget that the venerable Ex- 
President John Ouincy Adams — at whose death-bed, in my 
official chamber beneath this roof, I was a privileged watcher 
thirty-seven }ears ago this ver\- day — had been originally 
designated to pronounce the Corner-stone Oration, as one 
wdio had received his first commission, in tlie long and bril- 
liant career at home and abroad which awaited him, from 
the hands of Washington himself. In that enviable distinc- 
tion I certainly have no share; but I may be pardoned for 
remembering that, in calling upon me to supph- the place 
of Mr. Adams, it was borne in mind that I had but lately 
taken the oath as Speaker at his hands and from his lips, 
and that thus, as was suggested at the time, the electric 
chain, though lengthened by a single link, was still un- 
broken. Let me hope that the magnetism of that chain 
may not even \et l^e entirely exhausted, and that I may 



44 Dedication of the WasJmigton National Motnimeiit. 

still catch something of its vivifying and qnickening power, 
while I attempt to bring to the memory of Washington the 
remnants of a voice ^^"hich is failing and of a x'igor which I 
am conscions is ebbing away! 

It is now, Mr. President, vSenators, and Representatives, 
more than half a centnry since a voluntary Association of 
patriotic citizens initiated the project of erecting a National 
Monument to Washington in the cit>' which bears his name. 
More than a whole centnr}- ago, indeed — in that great )'ear 
of our Lord which witnessed the Treaty of Peace and Inde- 
pendence, 1783 — Congress had ordered an Equestrian Statue 
of him to be executed ' ' to testify the love, admiration, and 
gratitude of his countrymen"; and again, immediately after 
his death, in 1799, Congress had solemnly voted a marble 
monument to him at the Capital, "so designed as to com- 
memorate the great events of his military and political life." 
But our beloved country, while yet in its infanc}', and I nun- 
add in its indigene}', with no experience in matters of art, 
and heavily weighed down b>- the great debt of the Revolu- 
tionary W^ar, knew better how to vote monuments than how 
to build them, or, still more, how to pay for them. York- 
town monuments and W^ashington monuments, and the 
statues of I know not how many heroes of our struggle for 
Independence, made a hue show on paper in our earh- records, 
and were creditable to those who ordered them; l)ut their 
practical execution seems to have been indefmitelv post- 
poned. 

The Washington Monument As.sociation, instituted in 
1833, resolved that no such postponement should longer W 
endured, and proceeded to organize themselves for the work, 
wliich has at leiigtli been comi)leted. The\- had for iheir 



Dedicafioti of the ll'as/tiiii^fon A'ational MoiiiimciU. 4^ 

first President the great Chief Justice John :\hirsl\all, the 'per- 
sonal friend and chosen biograj^her of Washington, whose 
inipressi\e image >ou have so recently and so worthih- 
inneiled on >onder Western Terrace. Thev had for their 
second President the not less illnstrions James ]\Iadison, the 
father of the Constitntion of which Marshall was the inter- 
preter, and whose statne might well have no inferior place 
on the same Terrace. Among the other officers and mana- 
gers of that Association I cannot forget the names of William 
W. Seaton, whose memory is deservedly cherished b\- all who 
knew him; of that grand old soldier and patriot Winfield 
Scott; of Generals Archibald Henderson and Nathan Tow- 
son; of Walter Jones, and Peter Force, and Philip R. P'en- 
dall, together with that of its indefatigable General Agent, 
honest old Elisha Whittlesey. To that Association our 
earliest and most grateful acknowledgments are due on this 
occasion. But of those whom I have named, and of mauN- 
others whom I might name, so long among the honored and 
familiar figures of this metropolis, not one is left to be the 
subject of our congratulations. Meanwhile we all rejoice to 
welcome the presence of one of their contemporaries and 
friends, whose munificent endowments for Art, Education, 
Religion, and Charity entitle him to so enviable a place on 
the roll of American philanthropists — the venerable William 
W. Corcoran, now, and for many years past, our senior Vice- 
President, 

Nearly fifteen years, however, elapsed before the plans or 
the funds of this Association were in a state of sufficient for- 
wardness to warrant them even in fixing a day for la\ing the 
first foundation-stone of the contemplated structure. That 
day arrived at last — the 4th of July, 1848. And a great day 



4-6 Dedication of the ]]'asliiiip;tou National Monument. 

it was ill this capital of the nation. There had been no day 
like it here before, and there have been but few, if any, days 
like it here since. If any one desires a description of it, he 
will find a most exact and vivid one in the columns of the 
old National Intelligencer — doubtless from the pen of that 
prince of editors, the accomplished Jo.seph Gales. I recall 
among the varied features of the long procession Freema- 
sons of every order, with their richest regalia, including the 
precious gavel and apron of Washington himself; Firemen, 
with their old-fashioned engines; Odd-Fellows from a thou- 
sand Lodges; Temperance vSocieties and other Associations 
innumerable; the children of the Schools, long ago grown 
to mature manhood; the military escort of regulars, marines, 
and volunteer militia from all parts of the country, com- 
manded by Generals Quitman and Cadwalader and Colonel 
May, then crowned with laurels won in Mexico, which long 
ago were laid upon their graves. I recall, too, the masses 
of the people, of all classes, and sexes, and ages, and colors, 
gazing from the windows, or thronging the sidewalks, or 
grouped in countless thousands upon the Monument grounds. 
But I look around in vain for any of the principal witnesses 
of that imposing ceremonial : the venerable widows of Alex- 
ander Hamilton and James Madison; President Polk and 
his Cabinet, as then constituted — Buchanan, Marcy, John 
Y. Mason, Walker, Cave Johnson, and Clifford; Vice-Presi- 
dent Dallas; George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted 
son of the great Chief; not forgetting Abraham Lincoln and 
Andrew Johnson, both then members of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, and for whom the liveliest imagination could 
hardly have pictured what the future had in store for them. 
Of that whole bodv there are now but a handful of surviv- 



J'>rcf:cafion of the Washiih^lon Naiional Moituinrnf. 47 

ors, and probabl)- not more than two or three of them i)res- 
ent here to-day — not one in either branch of Congress, nor 
one, as I believe, in any department of the national service. 

To those of us who took part in the laying of that first 
stone, or who witnessed the ceremonies of the august occa- 
sion, and who have followed the slow ascent of the stupen- 
dous pile, sometimes with hope and sometimes with despair, 
its successful completion is, I need not say, an unspeakable 
relief, as well as a heartfelt delight and joy. I hazard little 
in saying that there are some here to-day, unwearied work- 
ers in ihe cause, like my friends Horatio King and Dr. 
Toner— to name no others — to whose parting hour a special 
pang would have been added had they died without the 
sight which now greets their longing eyes on yonder plain. 

I dare not venture on any detailed description of the long 
intervening agony between the laying of the first stone and 
the lifting of the last. It would fill a volume, and will be 
sure hereafter to furnish material for an elaborate mono- 
graph, whose author will literally find ' ' sermons in stones" — 
for almost every stone has its story if not its sermon. Every 
year of the first decade certainly had its eventful and note- 
worthy experiences. The early enthusiasm which elicited 
contributions to the amount of more than a quarter of a mill- 
ion of dollars from men, women, and children in all parts 
of the land, and which carried up the shaft more than a hun- 
dred and fifty feet almost at a bound; the presentation and 
formal reception of massive blocks of marble, granite, por- 
phyry, or freestone from every State in the Union and from 
so many foreign nations — beginning, according to the cata- 
logue, with a stone from Bunker Hill and ending with one 
from the Emperor of Brazil; the annual assemblies at its 



48 Dedication of the lf\is/iington Ahiiional Moiiiimetit. 

base on each succeeding Fourth of July, with speeches by 
distinguislied visitors; the sudden ilhiess and sad death of 
that sterling patriot President Zachary Taylor, after an ex- 
posure to the midday heat at the gathering in 1850, when 
the well-remembered Senator Foote, of Mississippi, had in- 
dulged in too exuberant an address — these were among its 
beginnings; the end was still a whole generation distant. 

Later on came the long, long disheartening pause, when — 
parti)' owing to the financial embarrassments of the times, 
parth- owing to the political contentions and con\ulsionsof 
the country, and parti)- owing to unhapp)' dissensions in the 
Association itself — an)' further contributions failed to be 
forthcoming, all interest in the Monument seemed to flag 
and die away, and all work on it was suspended and ]-)racti- 
call)- abandoned. A deplorable Civil War soon followed, 
and all efforts to renew popular interest in its completion 
were palsied. 

How shall I de])ict the sorr)- spectacle which those first one 
hundred and fift)--six feet, in their seeminglv' hopeless, help- 
less condition, with that dismal derrick still standing as in 
mocker)' upon their summit, presented to the eye of ev^ery 
comer to the Capital for nearly a quarter of a century! No 
wonder the unsightly pile became the subject of pity or de- 
rision. No wonder there were periodical panics about the 
security of its foundation, and a chronic condemnation of the 
original design. No wonder that suggestions for tearing it 
all down began to be entertained in many minds, and were 
advocated by man)- pens and tongues. That truncated shaft, 
with its untid)- surnmndings, looked onl)- like an insult to 
the niemor) of Washington. It s)-nil)oli/:ed nothing but an 
ungrateful country, not dcstinc-d — as, (rod be thanked, it still 



Dedication of the ]Vas/iini:;to/i National Monument. 49 

was— to o-rowtli and grandeur and imperishable glory, but 
doomed to premature decay, to discord, strife, and ultimate 
disunion. Its very presence was calculated to discourao-e 
many hearts from other things, as well as from itself. It was 
an abomination of desolation standing where it ought not. 
All that followed of confusion and contention in our country's 
history seemed foreshadowed and prefigured in that humili- 
ating spectacle, and one could almost read on its sides in 
letters of blood, " Divided! Weighed in the balance! Found 
wanting!" 

And well might that crude and undigested mass have stood 
so forever, or until the hand of man or the operation of the 
elements should have crushed and crumbled it into dust, if 
our Union had then perished. An unfinished, fragmentary, 
crumbling monument to Washington would have been a fit 
emblem of a divided and ruined Country. Washington him- 
self would not have had it finished. He would have desired 
no tribute, however imposing, from either half of a disunited 
Republic. He would have turned with abhorrence from be- 
ing thought the Father of anything less than One Country, 
with one Constitution and one Destiny. 

And how cheering and how inspiring the reflection, how 
grand and glorious the fact, that no sooner were our un- 
happy contentions at an end, no sooner were Union and 
I/ibert}% one and inseparable, once more and, as we trust 
and believe, forever reasserted and reassured, than this mon- 
ment to Washington gave signs of fresh life, began to at- 
tract new interest and new effort, and soon was seen rising 
again slowly but steadily toward the skies— stone after stone, 
course upon course, piled up in peace, with foundations ex- 
tended to the full demand of the enormous weight to be 

4 W M 



50 Deification of the JVas/iint^/oii National ATomtnicnt. 

placed upon them, until we can now hail it as complete! 
Henceforth and forever it shall be lovingly associated, not 
only with the memory of him in whose honor it has been 
erected, but with an era of assured peace, unity, and con- 
cord, which would have been dearer to his heart than the 
costliest personal memorial which the toil and treasure of 
his countrymen could have constructed. The Union is itself 
the all-sufficient and the only sufficient monument to Wash- 
ington. The Union was nearest and dearest to his great 
heart. ' ' The Union in any event, ' ' were the most emphatic 
words of his immortal Farewell Address. Nothing less than 
the Union would ever have been accepted or recognized by 
him as a monument commensurate with his services and his 
fame. Nothing less ought ever to be accepted or recognized 
as such by us, or by those who shall rise up, generation after 
generation, to do homage to his memory! 

For the grand consummation which we celebrate to-day 
we are indebted primaril}' to the National Government, under 
the successive Presidents of the past nine years, with the 
concurrent action of the two branches of Congress, prompted 
by Committees so often under the lead of the veteran Sen- 
ator Morrill, of Vermont, The wise decision and emphatic 
resolution of Congress on the 2d of August, 1876 — inspired 
by the Centennial Celebration of American Independence, 
moved by Senator Shennan, of Ohio, and adopted, as it 
auspicioush' happened, on the hundredth anniversary of 
the formal signing of the great Declaration — that the monu- 
ment should no longer be left unfinished, with the appoint- 
ment of a Joint Commission to direct and supervise its 
completion, settled the whole matter. To that Joint Com- 
mission, consisting of the President of the United States 



Dedication of the lVas/iii}i:;to>t National Monument. 5 1 

for the time being, the Senior Vice-President of the Monn- 
ment Association, the Chief of Engineers of the United 
States Army, with the architects of the Capitol and the 
Treasury, the congratulations and thanks of us all may well 
be tendered. But I think they will all cordially agree with 
me that the main credit and honor of what has been accom- 
plished belongs peculiarly and pre-eminently to the distin- 
guished officer of Engineers who has been their devoted and 
untiring Agent from the outset. The marvellous work of 
extending and strengthening the foundations of a structure 
already weighing, as it did, not less than thirty-two thousand 
tons — sixty-four million pounds — an operation which has 
won the admiration of engineers all over the world, and which 
will always associate this monument with a signal triumph 
of scientific skill — was executed upon his responsibility and 
under his personal supervnsion. His, too, have been the 
ingenious and effective arrangements by which the enor- 
mous shaft has been carried up, course after course, until it 
has reached its destined height of five hundred and fifty-five 
feet, as we see it at this hour. To Col. Thomas Lincoln 
Casey, whose name is associated in three generations with 
valued military servace to his country, the successful com- 
pletion of the monument is due. But he would not have 
us forget his accomplished Assistant, Capt. George W. Davis, 
and neither of them would have us fail to remember Super- 
intendent McLaughlin and the hard-handed and honest- 
hearted mechanics who have labored so long under their 
direction. 

Finis corotiat opus. The completion crowns the work. 
To-day that work speaks for itself, and needs no other orator. 
Mute and lifeless as it seems, it has a living and audible 



52 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

voice for all who behold it, and no one can misinterpret its 
language. Nor will any one, I think, longer cavil about its 
design. That design, let me add, originally prepared by the 
Washington architect, Robert Mills, of vSoutli Carolina, and 
adopted long before I had any relations -to this Association, 
was commended to public favor by such illustrious names 
as Andrew Jackson, John Ouincy Adams, Albert Gallatin, 
Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. A colonnade encircling 
its base, and intended as a sort of Pantheon, was soon dis- 
carded from the plan. Its main feature, from the first, was 
an obelisk, after the example of that which had then been 
recently agreed upon for Bunker Hill. And so it stands 
to-da}-, a simple sublime obelisk of pure white marble, its 
proportions, in spite of its immense height, conforming ex- 
actly to those of the most celebrated obelisks of antiquity, 
as my accomplished and lamented friend, our late Minister 
to Italy, George P. Marsh, so happily pointed out to us. It 
is not, indeed, as were those ancient obelisks, a monolith, 
a single stone cut whole from the quarr\-; that would have 
been obviously impossible for anything so colossal. Nor 
could we have been expected to attempt the impossible in 
deference to Egyptian methods of construction. We might 
almost as well be called on to adopt as the emblems of Amer- 
ican Progress the bronze Crabs which were found at the base 
of Cleopatra's Needle! America is certainly at liberty to 
present new models in art as well as in government, or to 
improve upon old ones; and, as I ventured to suggest some 
years ago, our monument to Washington will be all the 
more significant and symbolic in embodying, as it does, the 
idea of our cherished National motto, E rLURinus UNu:\r. 
That compact, consolidated structure, with its countless 



Dedication of the VVas/ii/igton National Monument. 53 

blocks, inside and ontsidc, held firmly in position by their 
own weight and pressnre, will ever be an instructive type 
of the National strength and grandeur which can only be 
secured by the union of "many in one." 

Had the Fine Arts indeed made such ach'ances in our 
country forty years ago as we are now proud to recognize, 
it is not improbable that a different design might have been 
adopted; yet I am by no means sure it would have been a 
more effective and appropriate one. There will always be 
ample opportunity for the display of decorati\-e art in our 
land. The streets and squares of this city and of all our 
great cities are wide open for the statues and architectural 
memorials of our distinguished statesmen and soldiers, and 
such monuments are ever^-where welcomed and honored. 
But is not — I ask in all sincerity — is not the acknowledged 
pre-eminence of the Father of his Country, first without a 
second, more fitly and adequately represented \^\ that soar- 
ing shaft, rising high above trees and spires and domes and 
all the smoke and stir of earth — as he ever rose above sec- 
tional prejudices and party politics and personal interests — 
overtopping and dominating all its surroundings, gleaming 
and glistening out at every vista as far as human sight can 
reach, arresting and riveting the eye at every turn, while it 
shoots triumphantly to the skies? Does not — does not, I 
repeat, that Colossal Unit remind all who gaze at it, more 
forcibly than any arch or statue could do, that tliere is one 
name in American history above all other names, one char- 
acter more exalted than all other characters, one example 
to be studied and reverenced beyond all other examples, 
one bright particular star in the clear upper sky of our 
finnament, whose guiding light and peerless lustre are for 



54 Dedication of the WasJiington National Monument. 

all men and for all ages, never to be lost sight of, never to 
be nnbceded? Of that name, of that character, of that ex- 
ample, of that glorious guiding light, our Obelisk, standing 
on the very spot selected by Washington himself for a mon- 
ument to the American Revolution, and on the site ^yhich 
marks our National meridian, will be a imique memorial 
and s}inl3ol forever. 

For oh, my friends, let us not longer forget, or even seem 
to forget, that we are here to commemorate not the ]\Ionu- 
ment but the Man. That stupendous pile has not been 
reared for any vain purpose of challenging admiration for 
itself. It is not, I need not say it is not, as a specimen of 
advanced art, for it makes no pretension to that; it is not as 
a signal illustration of engineering skill and science, though 
that ma)- confidently be claimed for it; it is not, certainly it 
is not, as the tallest existing structure in the world, for we 
do not measure the greatness of men by the height of their 
monuments, and we know that this distinction ma}- be done 
away with here or elsewhere in future years; but it is as a 
Memorial of the pre-eminent figure in modern or in ancient 
history the world over — of the man who has left the loftiest 
example of public and private virtues, and whose exalted 
character challenges the admiration and the homage of man- 
kind. It is this example and tl;is character — it is the ]\Ian, 
and not the Monument — that we are here to commemorate! 

Assembled in these Legislative Halls of the Nation, as near 
to the Anniversary of his birth as a due respect for the Da)- 
of our lyord will allow, to signalize the long-delayed accom- 
plishment of so vast a work, it is upon him in whose honor 
it has been upreared, and upon the incomparable and ines- 
timable services he has rendered to his conntrN- and to the 



Deihcation of the Washingtoti National Motuiment. 55 

world, that our tliou^i;hts should be concentred at this hour. 
Yet what can I say, what can any man say, of Washington, 
which has not already been rendered as familiar as house- 
hold words, not merely to those who hear me, but to all 
readers of history and all lovers of Liberty throughout the 
world? How could I hope to glean anything from a field 
long ago so carefull)' and lovingly reaped b}- such men as 
John Marshall and Jared Sparks, by Guizot and Edward 
Everett and Washington Irving, as well as by our eminent 
living historian, the venerable George Bancroft, happily here 
with us to-day? 

Others, many others, whom I dare not attempt to name 
or number, have vied with each other in describing a career 
of whose minutest details no American is ever weary, and 
whose variety and interest can never be exhausted. Every 
stage and step of that career, every scene of that great and 
glorious life, from the hour of his birth, one hundred and 
fifty-three years ago — "about ten in the morning of y'" ii^'' 
day of February, 1731-2," as recorded in his mother's 
Bible — in that primitive Virginia farm-house in the county 
of Westmoreland, of which the remains of the "great brick 
chimney of the kitchen" have been identified only witliin 
a few years past — every scene, I say, of that grand and glo- 
rious life, from that ever-memorable hour of his nativity, 
has been traced and illustrated by the most accomplished 
and brilliant pens and tongues of our land. 

His childhood, under the loving charge of that venerated 
mother, who delighted to say that "George had always 
been a good son," who happily lived not only to see him 
safely restored to her after the exposures and perils of the 
Revolutionary struggle, but to see him, in lier eighty-second 



56 Dedication of tlic WasJiiiigton National Monument. 

)-car, uiianimousl}' elected to be the President in Peace of 
the country of which he had been the vSaviour in War; his 
primary education in that "old-field school-house," with 
Hobby, the sexton of the parish, for his first master; his 
early and romantic adventures as a land surveyor; his nar- 
row escape from being a midshipman in the British Nav)' 
at fourteen years of age, for which it has been said a warrant 
had been obtained and his luggage actualh' put on board a 
man-of-war anchored in the river just below Mount Vernon; 
his still narrower and hairbreadth escapes from Indian 
arrows and from French bullets, and his survival — the only 
mounted officer not killed — at the defeat of Braddock, of 
whom he was an aide-de-camp; together with that most 
remarkable prediction of the Virginia pastor, Samuel 
Davies, afterward President of Princeton College, pointing 
him out — in a sermon, in 1755, on his return, at the age 
of twenty-three, from the disastrous field of the Mononga- 
hela — as "that heroic youth. Colonel Washington, whom I 
cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal a 
manner for some important service to his country" ; who 
has forgotten, who can ever forget these most impressive 
incidents of that opening career by which he was indeed so 
providentially preserved, prepared, and trained up for the 
eventful and illustrious future which awaited him? 

Still less can any American forget his taking his seat, 
soon afterward, in the Virginia House of Burgesses — with 
the striking tribute to his modesty which he won from the 
vSpeaker — and his subsequent election to the Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia, where on the 15th of June, 1775, 
at the instance of John Adams and on the motion of Thomas 
Johnson, aftc-rward Governor of AIar\laiid, he was unani- 



Dedication of the Washington National Moni/ment. 57 

mously appointed "General and Commander-in-Chief of 
such Forces as are, or shall be, raised for the maintenance 
and preserv-ation of American Liberty. ' ' Nor can any of us 
require to be reminded of the heroic fortitude, the unswerv- 
ing constancy, and the unsparing self-devotion with w'hich 
he conducted through seven or eight 5^ears that protracted 
contest, with all its toils and trials, its vexations and vicis- 
situdes, from the successful Siege of Boston, his first great 
triumph, followed by those masterly movements on the Del- 
aware, which no less celebrated a soldier than Frederick the 
Great declared ' ' the most brilliant achievements of any 
recorded in the annals of military action" — and so along — 
through all the successes and reverses and sufferings and 
trials of IMonmouth and Brandywine and Germantown and 
Valley Forge — to the Siege of Yorktown, in 1781, where, 
with the aid of our generous and gallant allies, under the 
lead of Rochambeau and De Grasse and Lafayette, he won 
at last that crowning victory on the soil of his beloved Vir- 
ginia. 

Nor need I recall to you the still nobler triumphs wit- 
nessed during all this period — triumphs in which no one 
but he had any share — triumphs over himself; not merely 
in his magnanimous appreciation of the exploits of his sub- 
ordinates, even when unjustly and maliciously contrasted 
with disappointments and alleged inaction of his own, but 
in repelling the machinations of discontented and mutinous 
officers at Newburgh, in spurning overtures to invest him 
with dictatorial and even Kingly power, and in finally sur- 
rendering his sword and commission so simply, so sublimely, 
to the Congress from which he had received them. 

Or, turning sharply from this sunnnary and faniiliar 



5^ Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

sketch of his military career — of which, take it for all in all, 
its long duration, its slender means, its vast theatre, its glo- 
rious aims and ends and results, there is no parallel in his- 
tory — turning sharply from all this, need I recall him, in 
this presence, presiding with paramount influence and au- 
thority over the Convention which framed the Constitution 
of the United States, and then, with such consummate dis- 
cretion, dignity, and wisdom, over the original administra- 
tion of that Constitution, when the principles and precedents 
of our great Federal system of Government were molded, 
formed, and established? 

It was well said by John Milton, in one of his powerful 
Defences of the People of England, "War has made many 
great whom Peace makes small." But of Washington we 
may say, as Milton said of Cromwell, that, while War made 
him great. Peace made him greater; or rather that both war 
and peace alike gave opportunity for the display of those 
incomparable innate qualities which no mere circumstances 
could create or destroy. 

But his sword was not quite yet ready to rest quietl)- in 
its scabbard. Need I recall him once more, after his retire- 
ment from a second term of the Chief Magistracy, accept- 
ing a subordinate position, under his successor in the Presi- 
dency, as Lieutcnant-General of the American Armies in 
view of an impending foreign war, which, thank God, was 
so happily averted? 

Nor can any one who hears me require to be reminded of 
that last scene of all, when, in his eight-and-sixtieth year, 
having been overtaken by a fatal shower of sleet and snow 
in the midst of those agricultural pursuits in which he so 
iiiuch (It-lighted at Mount Vernon, he laid liinist-lf calmly 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 59 

down to die — "not afraid to go," as he whispered to his 
physician — and left his whole country in tears such as had 
never flowed before. "Mark the perfect man and behold 
the upright, for the end of that man is peace ! ' ' 

Eighty-five years ago to-morrow — his sixty-eighth birth- 
day — was solemnly assigned by Congress for a general mani- 
festation of that overwhelming national sorrow, and for the 
commemoration, by eulogies, addresses, sermons, and relig- 
ious rites, of the great life which had thus been closed. But 
long before that anniversary arrived, and one day only after 
the sad tidings had reached the seat of Government in Phil- 
adelphia, President John Adams, in reply to a message of 
the House of Representatives, had anticipated all panegyrics 
by a declaration, as true to-day as it was then, that he was 
"the most illustrious and beloved personage which this 
country ever produced ' ' ; while Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
through the lips of John INIarshall, had summed up and 
condensed all that was felt, and all that could be or ever 
can be said, in those imperishable words, which will go 
ringing down the centuries, in every clime, in ever}- tongue, 
till time shall be no more, ' ' First in War, First in Peace, 
and First in the hearts of his Countrymen!" 

But there are other imperishable words which will resound 
through the ages — words of his own not less memorable than 
his acts — some of them in private letters, some of them 
in official correspondence, some of them in inaugural 
addresses, and some of them, I need not say, in that im- 
mortal Farewell Address which an eminent English his- 
torian has pronounced "unequaled by any composition of 
uninspired wisdom," and which ought to be learned by 
heart by the children of our .schools, like the Laws of the 



6o Dedication of the Wasliington National Monument. 

Twelve Tables in the schools of ancient Rome, and never 
forgotten when those children grow up to the privileges and 
responsibilities of manhood. 

It was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, from whom the 
idea of our Monument has been borrowed — I should rather 
say, evolved — to cover their obelisks with hieroglyphical in- 
scriptions, some of which have to this day perplexed and 
baffled all efforts to decipher them. Neither Champollion, 
nor the later Lepsius, nor any of the most skillful Egypt- 
ologists, have succeeded in giving an altogether satisfactory 
reading of the legends on Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's 
Needle. And those legends, at their best — engraved, as they 
were, on the granite or porphyry, with the letters enameled 
with gold, and boasted of as illuminating the world with 
their rays — tell us little except the dates and doings of some 
despotic Pharaoh, whom we would willingly have seen 
drowned in the ocean of oblivion, as one of them so deserv- 
edly was in the depths of the Red Sea. Several of the in- 
scriptions on Cleopatra's Needle, as it so strangely greets us 
in the fashionable promenade of our commercial capital, in- 
form us in magniloquent terms, of Thothmes III, who lived 
in the age preceding that in which Moses was born, styling 
him a "Child of the Sun," "Lord of the Two Worlds," 
"Endowed and endowing with power, life, and stability." 
Other inscriptions designate him, or Rameses II — the great 
oppressor of the Israelites — as the "Chastiser of Foreign 
Nations," "The Conqueror," "The Strong Bull!" 

Our Washington Needle, while it has all of the severe 
simplicity, and far more than all of the massive grandeur, 
which were the characteristics of Egyptian architecture, 
bears no inscriptions whatever, and none are likely ever to 



Drdicafkm of flu- U'as/tiiiiitoii Xalioiial Moinininit. 6i 

be carxed on it. Around its base bas-reliefs in bronze may 
possibly one da>- be placed, illustrative of some of the great 
events of Washinoton's life; ^vllile on the terrace beneath 
may, perhaps, be arranged emblematic figures of Justice and 
Patriotism, of Peace, Liberty, and Union. All this, how- 
ever, may well be left for future years, or even for future 
generations. Each succeeding generation, indeed, will take 
its own pride in doing whatever may be wisely done in 
adorning the surroundings of this majestic pile, and in thus 
testifying its own homage to the memory of the Father of 
his Country. Yet to the mind's eye of an American Patriot 
those marble faces will never seem vacant— never seem void 
or voiceless. No mystic figures or hieroglyphical signs will, 
indeed, be descried on them. No such vainglorious words 
as ' ' Conqueror, " or " Chastiser of Foreign Nations, ' ' nor any 
such haughty assumption or heathen ascription as "Child of 
the Sun, ' ' will be deciphered on them. But ever and anon, 
as he gazes, there will come flashing forth in letters of living 
light some of the great words, and grand precepts, and noble 
lessons of principle and duty which are the matchless be- 
quest of Washington to his country and to mankind. 

Can we not all read there already, as if graven by some 
invisible finger, or inscribed with some sympathetic ink— 
which it requires no learning of scholars, no lore of Egypt, 
nothing but love of our own land, to draw out and make 
legible— those masterly words of his Letter to the Governors 
of the vStates in 1783: 

There are four things which, I humbly conceive, are es- 
sential to the well-being— I may even venture to say, to the 
existence— of the United States as an independent Power: 
First, an indissoluble Union of the States under one Federal 



62 Dedication of the Washinglon National Moniimciif. 

head; Second, a sacred regard to Public Justice; Third, the 
adoption of a proper Peace Establishment; and, Fourth, the 
prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among 
the People of the United States which will induce them to 
forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those 
mutual concessions which are requisite to the general pros- 
perity, and, in some instances, to sacrifice their individual 
advantages to the interest of the Community. These are 
the Pillars on which the glorious fabric of our Independency 
and National Character must be supported. ' ' 

Can we not read, again, on another of those seemingly 
vacant sides, that familiar passage in his Farewell Address — 
a jewel of thought and phraseology, often imitated, but 
never matched — "The name of American, which belongs 
to you in your National capacity, must always exalt the just 
pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from 
local discriminations?" and, not far below it, his memora- 
ble warning against Party Spirit — "A fire not to be quenched, 
it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into 
a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume?" 

Still again, terser legends from the same prolific source 
salute our eager gaze: "Cherish Public Credit;" "Observe 
good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace 
and harmony with all;" "Promote, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general diffiision of Knowl- 
edge. In proportion as the structure of a Government gives 
force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion 
should be enlightened." 

And, above all — a thousand-fold more precious than all 
the rest — there will come streaming down from time to time, 
to many an eager and longing eye, from the very point where 



Dcdicalion of I he IVas/iiiii^/o/i Kalioiial MonuincitL 63 

its tiny aluiiiiiiiiiin apex reaches nearest to the skies — and 
shining forth with a radiance which no vision of Constan- 
tine, no labaruni for his legions, could ever have eclipsed — ■ 
some of those solemnly reiterated declarations and counsels, 
which might almost be called the Confession and Creed of 
Washington, and which can never be forgotten by any Chris- 
tian Patriot : 

"When I contemplate the interposition of Providence, as 
it was visibly manifest in guiding us through the Revolu- 
tion, in preparing us for the reception of the General Gov- 
ernment, and in conciliating the good-will of the people of 
America toward one another after its adoption, I feel myself 
oppressed and almost overwhelmed with a sense of Divine 
munificence. I feel that nothing is due to my personal 
agency in all those wonderful and complicated events, ex- 
cept what can be attributed to an honest zeal for the good 
of my country." "No people can be bound to acknowl- 
edge and adore an Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs 
of men more than the people of the United States. Every 
step by which they have advanced to the character of an 
Independent Nation seems to have been distinguished by 
some token of Providential Agency." "Of all the disposi- 
tions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion 
and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would 
that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor 
to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of the duties of men and of citizens." 

And thus on all those seemingly blank and empty sides 
will be read, from time to time, in his own unequaled lan- 
guage, the grand precepts and principles of Peace, Justice, 
Education, Morality, and Religion, which he strove to incul- 



64 Dedication of the WasJiiir^toii Xatioiial Moiiiiinciit. 

cate, while encircling and illuminating them all, and envel- 
oping the whole monument, from corner-stone to cap-stone, 
will be hailed with rapture by every patriotic eye, and be 
echoed by every patriotic heart, "The Union, the Union in 
any event!" 

But what are all the noble words which Washington 
wrote or uttered, what are all the incidents of his birth and 
death, what are all the details of his marvelous career from 
its commencement to its close, in comparison with his own 
exalted character as a Man? Rarely was Webster more 
impressive than when, on the completion of the monument 
at Bunker Hill, in describing what our Country had accom- 
plished for the welfare of mankind, he gave utterance, with 
his characteristic terseness and in his inimitable tones, to 
the simple assertion, "America has furnished to the world 
the character of Washington!" And well did he add that, 
"if our American institutions had done nothing else, that 
alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind." 

The character of Washington! Who can delineate it 
worthily? Who can describe that priceless gift of America 
to the world in terms which may do it any sort of justice, 
or afford any degree of satisfaction to his hearers or to him- 
self? 

Modest, disinterested, generous, just — of clean hands and 
a pure heart — self-denying and self-sacrificing, seeking 
nothing for himself, declining all remuneration beyond the 
reimbursement of his outlays, scrupulous to a farthing in 
keeping his accounts, of spotless integrity, scorning gifts, 
charitable to the needy, forgiving injuries and injustices, 
brave, fearless, heroic, with a prudence ever governing his 
impulses and a wisdom ever guidiug his valor — true to his 



DcdiaUion of the Wasliiiigton National Monument. 65 

friends, true to his whole country, true to himself — feari no- 
God, believing in Christ, no stranger to private devotion or 
public worship or to the holiest offices of the Church to which 
he belonged, but ever gratefull}' recognizing a Divine aid and 
direction in all tliat he attempted and in all that he accom- 
plished — what epithet, what attribute could be added to that 
consummate character to commend it as an example above 
all other characters in merely human history! 

From first to last he never solicited or sought an office, 
militar)' or civil. Every office stood candidate for him, and 
was ennobled by his acceptance of it. Honors clustered 
around him as if by the force of "first intention. " Respon- 
sibilities heaped themselves on his shoulders as if by the 
law of gravitation. They could rest safely nowhere else, 
and they found him ever ready to bear them all, ever equal 
to discharge them all. To what is called personal magnet- 
ism he could have had little pretension. A vein of dignified 
reserve, which Houdon and Stuart have rightly made his 
peculiar characteristic in marble and on canvas, repressed 
all familiarities with him. His magnetism was that of 
merit — superior, surpassing merit — the merit of spotless 
integrity, of recognized ability, and of unwearied willing- 
ness to spend and be spent in the service of his country. 
That was sufficient to attract irresistibly to his support not 
only the great mass of the people, but the wisest and best 
of his contemporaries in all quarters of the Union, and from 
them he selected, with signal discrimination, such advisers 
and counselors, in War and in Peace, as have never sur- 
rounded any other American leader. No jealousy of their 
abilities and accomplishments ever ruffled his breast, and 
with them he achic\-ed our Independence, organizcfl onr 

5 W M 



'; 



66 Dedication of tJie IVas/iing/on Nafional Monument. 

Constitutional Government, and stamped his name indelibly 
on the a<^e in which he lived as the Ai^e of Washington! 

Well did Chief-Justice Marshall, in that admiral Preface to 
the biography of his revered and illustrious friend, sum up 
with judicial precision the services he was about to describe 
in detail. Well and truly did he say, "As if the chosen in- 
strument of Heaven, selected for the purpose of effecting 
the great designs of Providence respecting this our Western 
Hemisphere, it was the peculiar lot of this distinguished 
man, at every epoch when the destinies of his country 
seemed dependent on the measures adopted, to be called by 
the united voice of his fellow-citizens to those high stations 
on which the success of those measures j^rincipally de- 
pended. ' ' 

And not less justly has Bancroft said, when describii]g 
Washington's first inauguration as President: "But for him 
the Country could not have achieved its Independence; but 
for him it could not have formed its Union; and now but 
for him it could not set the Federal Government in success- 
ful motion." 

I do not forget that there have been other men, in other 
days, in other lands, and in our own land, who have been 
called to command larger armies, to preside over more dis- 
tracted councils, to administer more extended Governments, 
and to grapple with as complicated and critical affairs. Grat- 
itude and honor wait ever on their persons and their names! 
But we do not estimate Miltiades at Marathon, or Pausanias 
at Platsea, or Themistocles at Salamis, or Epaminondas at 
Mantinea or Leuctra, or Leonidas at Thermopylte, by the 
number of the forces which they led on land or on sea. Nor 
do we gauge the glory of Columbus by the size of the little 



Dedication of fhc WasJnngton Nafio?ial Motuiment. 67 

fleet with which he ventured so heroically upon the perils of 
a mighty unknown deep. There are some circumstances 
which can not occur twice; some occasions of which there 
can be no repetition; some names which will always assert 
their individual pre-eminence, and will admit of no rivalry or 
comparison. The glory of Columbus can never be eclii:»sed, 
never approached, till our New World shall require a fresh 
discovery; and the glory of Washington will remain unique 
and peerless until American Independence shall require to 
be again achieved, or the foundations of Constitutional Lib- 
erty to be laid anew. 

Think not that I am claiming an immaculate perfection 
for any mortal man. One Being only has ever walked this 
earth of ours without sin. Washington had his infirmities 
and his passions like the rest of us; and he would have been 
more or less than human had he never been overcome by 
them. There were young officers around him, in camp and 
elsewhere, not unlikely to have thrown temptations in his 
path. There were treacherous men, also — downright trai- 
tors, some of them — whose words in council, or conduct in 
battle, or secret plottings behind his back, aroused his right- 
eous indignation, and gave occasion for memorable bursts of 
anger. Now and then, too, there was a disaster, like that 
of St. Clair's expedition against the Indians in 1791, the 
first tidings of which stirred the very depths of his soul, and 
betrayed him into a momentary outbreak of mingled grief 
and rage, which only proved how violent were the emotions 
he was so generally able to control. 

While, however, not even the i^olluted breath of slander 
has left a shadow upon the purity of his life, or a doubt of 
his eminent power of self-command, he made no boast of 



68 Dedication of the U'as/iiir^/oii Xaiioiial Mviiiiinoif. 

virtue or valor, and no amount of flattery ever led him to be 
otherwise than distrustful of his own ability and merits. 
As early as 1757, when only twenty-live years of age, he 
wrote to Governor Dinwiddle: "Tliat I have foibles, and 
perhaps many of them, I shall not den\ ; I should esteem 
myself, as the world also would, vain and empty were I to 
arrogate perfection. ' ' 

On accepting the command of the Army of the Revolu- 
tion, iu 1775, he said to Congress: "I beg it may be remem- 
bered by ever}- gentleman in the room that I this day de- 
clare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think m)self equal 
to the command I am honored with." 

And, in 1777, when informed that anonymous accusations 
against him had been sent to Laurens, then President of 
Congress, he wrote privately to beg that the paper might at 
once be submitted to the body to which it was addressed, 
adding these frank and noble words: "Why should I be ex- 
empt from censure — the unfailing lot of an elevated station? 
Merit and talents which I cannot pretend to rival have ever 
been subject to it. My heart tells me it has been my unre- 
mitted aim to do the best which circumstances would per- 
mit; yet I may have been very often mistaken in my judg- 
ment of the means, and may, in many instances, deserve 
the imputation of error." 

And when at last he was contemplating a final retirement 
from the Presidency, and in one of the draughts of his Fare- 
well Address had written that he withdrew "with a pure 
heart and nndefiled hands," or words to that effect, he sup- 
pressed the ])assage and all other similar e\])ressious, lest, 
as he suggested, he should seem to elaim W>\ himself a meas- 
ure of perfection which all the world now unites in accivd- 



Ledkarion of the ]Va,hinot,>„ Xatio, al Momwinif. 6y 

in- to him. For I liazard little in asserlino- that all the 
world does now accord to Washinoton a tribute, which has 
the indorsement of the Kncycloixedia Britannica, that "of 
all men that have exer lived, he was the greatest of good 
men, and the best of great men." Or, let me borrow tlie 
same idea from a renowned English poet, who gave his 
young life and brilliant genius to the cause of Liberty in 
modern Greece. "Wliere," wrote Byron— 
"Where may the wearied eye repose 
AMien gazing on the great, 
Where neither guilty glory glows, 

Nor despicable state ! 
Yes, One — the first, the last, the best, 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 

Whom envy daretl not hate — 
Bequeathed the name of Washington, 
To make men blush there was but One! " 

To what other name have such tributes ever been paid by 
great and good men abroad as well as at home? You have 
not forgotten the language of Lord Erskine in his inscri])- 
tion of one of his productions to Washington liiuisclf: 
" You are the only being for whom I have an awful rever- 
ence." 

You have not forgotten the language of Charles James Fox, 
in the House of Commons: " Illustrious Man, before whom 
all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance." 

Y^ou have not forgotten- the language of Eord Brougham, 
twice uttered, at long interxals, and with a ])urpose, as 
Brougham himself once told uie, to imiM-css and enforce 
those emphatic words as his fixed and final judgment: 
"Until time shall be no more will a test of the progress 
which our race has made in Wisdom and \'irtue be derived 



70 Dedication of tJic WasJiirigton National Monument. 

from the veneration paid to the innnortal name of Wash- 
ington ! ' ' 

Nor can I fail to welcome the crowning tribnte, perhaps, 
from oiir mother land — reaching me, as it has, at the last mo- 
ment of revising what I had prepared for this occasion — in a 
pnblished letter from Gladstone, her great Prime Minister, 
who, after saying in casnal conversation that Washington 
was ' ' the pnrest fignre in history, ' ' writes deliberately, ' ' that 
if, among all the pedestals snpplied by history for public 
characters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one 
higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's 
notice to name the fittest occupant for it, I think my choice, 
at any time during the last forty-five years, would have 
lighted, and it would now light, upon Washington!" 

I)Ut if any one would get a full impression of the affection 
and veneration in which Washington was held by his con- 
temporaries, let him turn, almost at random, to the letters 
which were addressed to him, or which were written about 
him, by the eminent men, military or civil, American or 
European, who were privileged to correspond with him, or 
who, ever so casually, found occasion to allude to his career 
and character. And let him by no means forget, as he reads 
them, that those letters were written a hundred years ago, 
when language was more measured, if not more sincere, 
than now, and before the indiscriminate use of the superla- 
tive, and the exaggerations and adulations of flatterers and 
parasites, sending great and small alike down to posterity as 
patterns of every virtue imder Heaven, had tended to render 
such tributes as suspicious as they often are worthless. 

What, for instance, said plain-speaking old Benjamin 
Franklin? " My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold 



Dedicaiion of the Washington National Monument. 7 1 

head curiously wrought \\\ the form of tlie cap of Liberty," — 
these are the words of his Will in 1789 — "I give to my friend 
and the friend of mankind George Washington. If it were 
a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it." 

" Happy, happy America;" wrote Gouverneur Morris from 
Paris, in 1793, when the French Revolution was making 
such terrific progress — "haiDpy, happy America, governed 
by reason, by law, by the man whom she loves, whom she 
almost adores! It is the pride of my life to consider that 
man as my friend, and I hope long to be honored with that 
title." 

"I have always admired," wrote to him Count Herz- 
burg, from Berlin, where he had presided for thirty years 
over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under Frederick the 
Great — "I have always admired your great virtues and 
qualities, your disinterested patriotism, your unshaken 
courage and simplicity of manners — qualifications by which 
you surpass men even the most celebrated of antiquity." 

"I am sorry," wrote Patrick Henry, then Governor of 
Virginia, in allusion to the accusations of one of the no- 
torious faction of 1777 — "I am sorry there should be one 
man who counts himself my friend who is not yours." 

Thomas Jefferson, who, we all know, sometimes differed 
from him, took pains, at a later period of his life, to say of 
him in a record for posterity: " His integrity was most pure; 
his justice the most inflexible I have ever known; no 
motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, 
being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every 
sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man." And 
when it was once suggested to him, not long before his 
own death, that the fame of Washington might lessen 



72 Drdicaiioii oj lltr WasJiur^ton Ahtlioi al Aloniiiiiriit. 

with the lapse of years, Jefferson, lookiiifj up to the sky, 
and in a tone which betrayed deep emotion, is said to have 
replied: " Washino^ton's fame will go on increasing until 
the brightest constellation in yonder heavens is called by 
his name! " 

"If I could now present myself," wrote Edmund Ran- 
dolph, who had made injurious imputations on Washington 
before and after his dismissal from the Cabinet in 1795 — 
" if I could now present myself before your venerated uncle, " 
he wrote most touchingly to Judge Bushrod Washington in 
1810, "it would be my pride to confess my contrition that 
I suffered my irritation, let the cause be what it might, to 
use some of those expressions respecting him, which, at this 
moment of indifference to the world, I wish to recall, as 
being inconsistent with my subsequent conviction. My life 
will, I hope, be sufficiently extended for the recording of 
my sincere opinion of his virtues and merit in a style which 
is not the result of a mind merely debilitated by misfortune, 
but of that Christian Philosophy on which alone I depend 
for inward tranquillity." 

And far more touching and more telling still is the fact 
that even Thomas Conway, the leader of that despicable 
cal)al at Valley Forge, but who lived to redeem his name in 
other lands, if not in our own — when believing himself to 
be mortally wounded in a duel, in 1778, and "just able," as 
he said, "to hold the pen for a few minutes" — employed 
those few minutes in writing to Washington to express his 
"sincere grief for having done, written, or said anything 
disagreeable" to him, adding these memorable words: " You 
are, in my e\"es, the great and good man. May )ou long 



Dedication of iJie Wasliiih^foii Xafwiial I\[<'iiiintr?it. 73 

enjoy the love, veneration, and esteem of these States, whose 
liberties yon have asserted by your virtnes!" 

From his illnstrions friend Alexander Hamilton I need 
not cite a word. His whole life bore testimony, more im- 
pressive than words, to an admiration and affection for his 
great chief, which conld not be exceeded, and which no 
momentary misnnderstandinf^^s conld shake. 

Bnt listen once more, and only once more, to Lafayette, 
writing to Washington from Cadiz, in 1783, when the glad 
tidings of the Treaty of Peace had jnst reached him : ' ' Were 
yon bnt snch a man as Jnlins Qesar, or the King of Prnssia, 
I slionld almost be sorry for yon at the end of the great 
tragedy where you are acting such a part. But, with my 
dear General, I rejoice at the blessings of a Peace in which 
our noble ends have been secured. . . . As for you, 
who truly can say you have done all tins, what must \o\\x 
virtuous and good heart feel in the happy moment when the 
Revolution you have made is now firmly established!" 

Rightly and truly did Lafayette say that his beloved 
General was of another spirit and of a different mould from 
Caesar and Frederick. Washington had little, or nothing, in 
common with the great military heroes of his own or any 
other age — conquering for the sake of conquest — "wading 
through slaughter to a throne " — and overrunning the world, 
at a countless cost of blood and treasure, to gratify their own 
ambition, or to realize some mad dream of universal empire. 
No ancient Plutarch has furnished any just parallel for him 
in this respect. No modern Plutarch will find one. In all 
history, ancient and modern alike, he stands, in this resjiect, 
as individual and unique as yonder majestic Needle. 

In his ]£ulog\' on \\'ashingl()n before the Legislatnre of 



74 Dedication of the Washington National Alonument. 

Massachusetts the eloquent Fisher Ames, my earliest prede- 
cessor in Congress from the Boston district, said, eighty-five 
years ago, that in contemplating his career and character, 
"Mankind perceived some change in their ideas of great- 
ness. . . . The splendor of power, and even the name 
of Conqueror, had grown dim in their eyes. . . . They 
knew and felt that the world's wealth, and its empire too, 
would be a bribe far beneath his acceptance." Yes, they all 
saw that he bore ever in his mind and in his heart, as he 
said at Philadelphia on his way to Cambridge, in 1775, that 
"as the Sword was the last resort for the preservation of our 
liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when 
those liberties were firmly established. ' ' And they saw him 
lay down his sword at the earliest moment, and retire to the 
pursuits of peace, only returning again to public service at 
the unanimous call of his country; to preside for a limited 
period over a free Constitutional Republic, and then eagerly 
resuming the rank of an American Citizen. That was the 
example which changed the ideas of mankind as to what 
constituted real greatness. And that example was exhibited 
for all nations and for all ages, never to be forgotten or over- 
looked, by him who was born one hundred and fifty-three 
years ago to-morrow in that primitive little Virginia farm- 
house! 

I am myself a New-Englander by birth, a son of INTassa- 
chusetts, bound by the strongest tics of affection and of blood 
to honor and venerate the earlier and the later worthies of 
the old Puritan Commonwealth, jealous of their fair fame, 
and ever ready to assert and vindicate their just renown. 
But I turn reverently to the Old Dominion to-day, and sa- 
lute her as the mother of the pre-eminent and incom])aral)le 



Dedication of the Was/iirigfofi National Monument. 75 

American, the Father of his Country, and the foremost fig- 
ure in all merely human history. In the words of our own 
poet TvOwell: 

"Virginia gave us this imperial man, 
Cast in the massive mould 
Of those high-statured ages old 
Which into grander forms our mortal metal ran; 
She gave us this unblemished gentleman: 
What shall we give her back but love and praise?" 

Virginia has had other noble sons, whom I will not name, 
but whom I do not forget. When I remember how many 
they are, and how great they have been, and how much our 
country has owed them, I may well exclaim, '■'' Felix prole 
virihn. ' ' But, as I think of her Washington — of our Wash- 
ington, let me rather say — I am almost ready to add, '^ La^ta 
Dethn partii P ' 

A celebrated philosopher of antiquity, who was nearly 
contemporary with Christ, but who could have known noth- 
ing of what was going on in Judea, and who alas! did not 
always "reck his own rede" — wrote thus to a young-er 
friend, as a precept for a worthy life : " Some good man must 
be singled out and kept ever before our eyes, that we may 
live as if he were looking on, and do everything as if he 
could see it." 

Let me borrow the spirit, if not the exact letter, of that 
precept, and address it to the young men of my Country: 
"Keep ever in yotir mind and before your mind's eye the 
loftiest standard of character. You have it, I need not say, 
supremely and unapproachably, in Him who spake as never 
man spake and lived as never man lived, and who died for 
the sins of the world. That character stands apart and alone. 
But of merely mortal men the monument we have dedicated 



•jC) Dciiicaiicn of the ]Vos/ii//i:;ft)/i National Moiiiiniciit. 

to-day points out the one for all Americans to study, to imi- 
tate, and, as far as may be, to emulate. Keep his example 
and his character c\-er before your e\es and in your hearts. 
Live and act as if he were seeing and judj^ing your personal 
conduct and \our public career. Strive to approximate that 
lofty standard, and measure your integrity and your patriot- 
ism by your nearness to it or your departure from it. The 
prime meridian of universal longitude, on sea or land, may 
be at Greenwich, or at Paris, or where you will. lUit the 
prime meridian of pure, disinterested, patriotic, exalted hu- 
man character will be marked forever by yonder Washing- 
ton Obelisk!" 

Yes, to the Young Men of America, under God, it remains, 
as they rise up from generation to generation, to shape the 
destinies of their Country's future — and woe unto them if, 
regardless of the great example which is set before them, 
they prove unfaithful to the tremendous responsibilities 
which rest upon them! 

Yet, let me not seem even for a moment to throw off upon 
the children the rightful share of those responsibilities w^hich 
belongs to their fathers. Upon us, upon us it devolves to 
provide that the advancing generations shall be able to com- 
prehend and ecpial to meet the demands which are thus be- 
fore them. It is ours — it is yours especially, Senators and 
Representatives — to supi)ly them witli the means of that 
Universal Education which is the crying want of our land, 
and without which any intelligent and successful Free Gov- 
ernment is impossible. 

We are just entering on a new Oh ni])iad of our national 
history — the twenty-fifth Olympiad since Washington first 
cnkivd on the adiiiinislraliou of our Constitutional (3i)vern- 



Dcdicaiioii of f/ic U\ishiii\:;foii Xalioinil Afc/iH/iic/if. 77 

iiient. Tlie will of the People has alrcad>- desionated under 
whom the first century of that Government is to be closed, 
and the best hopes and wishes of every jDatriot will be with 
him in the great responsibilities on wdiicli he is about to 
enter. No distinction of party or of section i)revents our all 
feeling- alike that our Country, b)- whomsoever governed, 
is still and ahva)-s our Country, to be cherished in all our 
hearts, to be upheld and defended by all our hands! 
■ INIost happy would it be if the 30th of April, on which 
the first Inauguration of Washington took place in 17S9, 
could henceforth be the date of all future inaugurations— as 
it might be by a slight amendment to the Constitution- 
giving, as it would, a much-needed extension to the short 
sessions of Congress, and letting the second centur>' of our 
Constitutional History begin where the first century practi- 
cally began. 

But let the date be what it may, the inspiration of the 
Centennial Anniversary of that first great Inauguration 
must not be lost upon us. Would that an>- words of mine 
could help us all, old and young, to resolve that the princi- 
ples and character and example of Washington, as he came 
forward to take the oaths of office on that dav, shall once 
more be recognized and re\'erenced as the model for all who 
succeed him, and that his disinterested purity and patriot- 
ism shall be the supreme test and standard of American 
statesmanship! That standard can never be taken away 
from us. The most elaborate and durable monuments may 
perish. But neither the forces of nature, nor any fiendish 
crime of man, can ever mar or mutilate a great example of 
public or private virtue. 

Our matchless Obelisk stands proudly before us to-day, 
an,l we hail it with the exultations of a united and ol(,ri,,ns 



78 Dedication of the Washington National Momiment. 

Nation. It may or may not be proof against the cavils of 
critics, but nothing of human construction is proof against 
the casualties of time. The storms of winter must blow 
and beat upon it. The action of the elements must soil 
and discolor it. The lightnings of Heaven may scar and 
blacken it. An earthquake may shake its foundations. 
Some mighty tornado, or resistless cyclone, may rend its 
massive blocks asunder and hurl huge fragments to the 
ground. But the character which it commemorates and 
illustrates is secure. It will remain unchanged and un- 
changeable in all its consummate. purity and splendor, and 
will more and more command the homage of succeeding 
ages in all regions of the Earth. 
God be praised, that character is ours forever! 

The reading of Mr. Winthrop's oration, which was fre- 
quently interrupted by applause, was followed by music 
from the Marine Band. 

The President of the Senate. Gentlemen, an ora- 
tion will now be delivered by Hon. John W. Daniel, of 
Virginia. 

ORATION BY HON. JOHN W. DANIEL. 

Mr. President of the United States^ Senators^ Representa- 
tives^ Judges^ Mr. CJiairnian^ and my Countrymen : 
Alone in its grandeur stands forth the character of Wash- 
ington in history; alone like some peak that has no fellow 
in the mountain range of greatness. 

"Washington," says Guizot, "Washington did the two 
greatest things which in politics it is permitted to man to 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 79 

attempt. He maintained by Peace the independence of his 
country, which he had conquered- by War. He founded a 
free government in the name of the j^rinciples of order and 
by re-establishing their sway." 

Washington did indeed do these things. But he did 
more. Out of disconnected fragments he molded a whole 
and made it a country. He achieved his country's inde- 
pendence by the sword. He maintained that independence 
by peace as by war. He finally established both his coun- 
try and its freedom in an enduring frame of constitutional 
government, fashioned to make Liberty and Union one and 
inseparable. These four things together constitute the un- 
exampled achievement of Washington. 

The world has ratified the profound remark of Fisher 
Ames, that "he changed mankind's ideas of political great- 
ness." It has approved the opinion of Edward Everett, 
that he was "the greatest of good men, and the best of 
great men." It has felt for him, with Erskine, "an awful 
reverence." It has attested the declaration of Brougham, 
that "he was the greatest man of his own or of any age." 
It is matter of fact to-day as when General Hamilton, an- 
nouncing his death to the Army, said, ' ' The voice of praise 
would in vain endeavor to exalt a name unrivaled in the 
lists of true glory." America still proclaims him, as did 
Col. Henry Lee, on the floor of the House of Representa- 
tives, "The man first in peace, first in war, and first in the 
hearts of his countr}'men." And from beyond the sea the 
voice of Alfieri, breathing the soul of all lands and peoples, 
still pronounces the blessing, "Happy are you who have 
for the sublime and permanent basis of your glory the love 
of country demonstrated by deeds. ' ' 



8o Dedication of the JVas/iiiii^ton National Moiiiiiiient. 

Yc who lia\-c unrolled the scrolls that tell the tale of the 
rise and fall of nations; before whose eyes has moved the 
panorama of man's strug<^les, achievements, and progres- 
sion, find \on anywhere the storN' of one whose life-work is 
more than a fragment of that which in his life is set before 
3-ou? Conquerors, who have stretched your scepters over 
boundless territories; founders of empire, who have held 
N'our dominions in the reign of law; reformers, who have 
cried aloud in the wilderness of oppression; teachers, who 
have striven with reason to cast down false doctrine, heresy, 
and schism; statesmen, whose brains have throbbed with 
mighty plans for the amelioration of human society; scar- 
crowned Vikings of the sea, illustrious heroes of the land, wl] o 
have borne the standards of siege and battle — come forth in 
bright array from your glorious fanes — and would )e be 
measured by the measure of his stature? Behold you not in 
him a more illustrious and more venerable presence? 

Statesman, Soldier, Patriot, Sage, Reformer of Creeds, 
teacher of Truth and Justice, Achiever and Preserver of 
Liberty — the P'irst of Men — Founder and Savior of his 
Country, Father of his People — this is HE, solitar)- and un- 
approachable in his grandeur. Oh! felicitous Providence 
that gave to America our Washington ! 

High soars into the sky to-day — higher than the Pyramids 
or the dome of vSt. Paul's or St. Peter's — the loftiest and 
most imposing structure that man has ever reared — high 
soars into the sky to where 

" Karth highest yearns to meet a star," 
the monument which "We the people of the United States" 
have erected to his memor\-. 

It is a fitting monumi-nt, more fitting than any statue. 



Dcdicaiion of i/ie Washington N'ational MonKmcnf. 8 1 

For his image could only display him in some one phase of 
his varied character — as the Commander, the Statesman, the 
Planter of Mount Vernon, or the Chief Magistrate of his 
country. So Art has fitly typified his exalted life in yon 
plain lofty shaft. Such is his greatness, that only by a sym- 
bol could it be represented. As Justice must be blind in 
order to be whole in contemplation, so History must be 
silent, that by this mighty sign she may unfold the ampli- 
tude of her story. 

It was fitting that the eminent citizen who thirty-seven 
years ago spoke at the laying of the corner-stone should be 
the orator at the consummation of the work which he in- 
augurated. It was Massachusetts that struck the first blow 
for independence; it was her voice that made the stones of 
Boston to "rise in mutiny"; it was her blessed blood that 
sealed the covenant of our salvation. The finnament of our 
national life she has thickly sown with deeds of glory. John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, was among the first to urge the 
name of Washington to the Continental Congress when it 
commissioned him as Commander-in-Chief of the Ameri- 
can forces; it was .upon her soil that he drew the sword 
which was sheathed at Yorktown, and there that he first 
gave to the battle-breeze the thirteen stripes that now float 
in new galaxies of stars. And meet it was that here in the 
Capitol of the Republic, at the distance of more than a cen- 
tury from its birth, the eloquent son of that illu.strious State 
should span the chasm with his bridge of gold, and em- 
blazon the final arch of commemoration. 

And I fancy, too, that in a land where the factious tongues 
of the elder nations are being hushed at last, and all rival 

strains commingled in the blood of brotherhood, the accom- 
6 w M 



82 Dedicaiion of the Washington National Monument. 

plishcd mission of America finds fitting illustration in the 
Sage descended from the Pilgrims crowning the Hero sprung 
from the Cavaliers. 

It has seemed fitting to you, Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
men of the Commission, that a citizen of the State which 
was the birthplace and the home of Washington — whose 
House of Burgesses, of which he was a member — made the 
first burst of opposition against the Stamp Act, although less 
pecuniarily interested therein than their New England 
brethren, and was the first representative body to recom- 
mend a General Congress of the Colonies ; of the State whose 
]\Iason drew that Bill of Rights which has been called the 
Magna Charta of America; whose Jefferson wrote, whose 
Richard Henry Lee moved, the Declaration that these Col- 
onies be "free and independent States " ; whose Henry con- 
densed the revolution into the electric sentence, "Liberty 
or Death ;' ■ of the State which cemented union with that vast 
territorial dowry out of which five States w^ere carved, hav- 
ing now here some ninety representatives; of that State 
whose Madison was named "the Father of the Constitu- 
tion," and whose Marshall became its most eminent ex- 
pounder; of the State which holds within its bosom the 
sacred ashes of Washington, and cherishes not less the 
principles which once kindled them with fires of Heaven 
descended — it has seemed fitting to you, gentlemen, that a 
citizen of that State should be also invited to deliver an 
address on this occasion. 

Would, with all my heart, that a worthier one had been 
your choice. Too highly do I esteem the position in which 
)ou place me to feel aught but solemn distrustfulncss and 
apprehension. And who indeed might not shrink from 



Didicatio?i of the Washington National Monument. S^ 

sucli a theater when a Winthrop's eloquence still thrilled 
all hearts with Washington the theme? 

Yet, in Virginia's name, I thank you for the honor done 
her. She deserv^ed it. Times there are when even hardi- 
hood is virtue; and to such virtue alone do I lay claim in 
venturing to abide your choice to be her spokesman. 

None more than her could I offend did I take opportunity 
to give her undue exaltation. Her foremost son does not 
belong to her alone, nor does she so claim him. His part 
and her part in the Revolution would have been as nauf^ht 
but for what was so gloriously done by his brothers in 
council and in arms and by her sister Colonies, who kept 
the mutual pledge of "Life, Fortune, and Sacred Honor.'.' 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connect- 
icut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, your 
comrade of the old heroic days, salutes you once again in 
honor and affection ; no laurel could be plucked too bright 
for Virginia's hand to lay upon your brows. And ye, our 
, younger companions, who have sprung forth from the wil- 
derness, the prairie, and the mountain, and now extend your 
empire to the far slopes where your teeming cities light their 
lamps by the setting sun— what grander tribute to the past, 
what happier assurance of the present, what more auspicious 
omens of the future could Heaven vouchsafe us than those 
which live and move and have their being in your presence? 

What heart could contemplate the scene to-day — grander 
than any of Old Rome, when her victor's car "climbed the 
Capitol"— and not leap into the exclamation, "I, too, am 
an American citizen ! ' ' 

Yet may I not remind you that Washington was a Vir- 



84 Dedication of fhc Masliiiii^ton iXalional A/oiiiiiiiciif. 

giniaii before he became an American, to tell his country- 
men that "the name of American, which belongs to yon in 
your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of 
patriotism more than any appellation derived from local dis- 
crimination?" And may I not seek the fountain from 
which sprang a character so instinct with love of country? 

The Puritans of England, who from the landing at Ply- 
mouth in 1620 to the uprising against Charles I in 1640, 
"turned to the New World," in the language of Canning, 
"to redress the balance of the Old," were quickly followed 
to America by a new stream of immigration, that has left as 
marked an impress upon our civilization between the South 
Atlantic and the Mississippi as the sons of the Pilgrims 
have made between the North Atlantic and the Lakes. 

When Charles I was beheaded in 1649, and when his son, 
the Second Charles, was beaten at Worcester in 1651, mul- 
titudes of the King's men turned their faces also to the new 
land of hope, the very events which checked the immigration 
of the Puritans to New England giving impulse to the tide 
which moved the Cavaliers to the Old Dominion. Between 
1650 and 1670 the Virginia Colony increased from fifteen 
thousand to forty thousand souls, and nearly one-half of this 
number thither came within the decade after the execution 
of the King and the establishment of Cromwell's common- 
wealth on the ruins of his throne. 

Intense loyalists were these new Virginians, who "would 
defend the crown if it hung upon a bush " ; and when indeed 
its substance vanished with the kingly head that wore it, 
these "faithful subjects of King and Church" held allegi- 
ance to its phantom and to the exiled claimant. Rut they 
were not inattentive to their liberties. And if \'irginia was 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 85 

the last of all the countries belonging to England to submit 
to Cromwell, yet she was also ' ' the first state in the world 
composed of separate boroughs, diffused over an extensive 
surface, where representation was organized on the principle 
of universal suffrage." And in the very terms of surrender 
to the commonwealth it was stipulated that "the people of 
Virginia" should have all the liberties of the free-born 
people of England; should intrust their business, as formerly, 
to their own grand Assembly; and should remain unques- 
tioned for past loyalty to the King. 

As in New England the Pilgrim Colony grew apace, so in 
Virginia prospered that of the Cavaliers. With that love of 
landed estates which is an instinct of their race, they planted 
their homes in the fertile lowlands, building great houses 
upon broad acres, surrounded by ornamental grounds and 
gardens. 

Mimic empires were these large estates, and a certain 
baronial air pervaded them. Trade with Europe loaded the 
tables of their proprietors with luxuries ; rich plate adorned 
them. Household drudgeries were separated from the main 
dwelling. The family became a considerable government 
within itself — the mistress a rural queen, the master a local 
potentate, with his graziers, seedsmen, gardeners, brewers, 
butchers, and cooks around him. Many of the heads of 
families were traveled and accomplished men. The parishes 
were ministered to by the learned clergy of the Established 
Church. In the old College of William and Mary ere long 
were found the resources of classic education, and in the old 
capital town of Williamsburg the winter season shone re- 
splendent with the entertainments of a refined society. 
Barges imported from England were resources of amusement 



86 Dedication of the Washington National Monumeni. 

and means of friendly visitations along the water-courses, 
and heavy coaches, drawn by four or six horses, became 
their mode of travel. 

' ' Born almost to the saddle and to the use of firearms, 
they were keen hunters, and when the chase was over they 
sat by groaning boards and drank confusion to the French- 
man and Spaniard abroad, and to Roundhead and Prelatist 
at home. When the lurking and predatory Indian became 
the object of pursuit, no speed of his could elude their fierj* 
and gallantly mounted cavalry." 

This was the Virginia, these the Virginians, of the olden 
time. If even in retrospect their somewhat aristocratic 
manners touch the sensitive ner^'^e of a democratic people, 
it may at least be said of them that nothing like despotism, 
nihilism, or dynamite was ever found amongst them ; that 
they cherished above all things Honor and Courage, the vir- 
tues preservative of all other virtues, and that they nurtured 
men and leaders of men well fitted to cope with great forces, 
resolve great problems, and assert great principles. And it 
is at least true that their habits of thought and living never 
proved more dangerous to ' ' life, liberty, or the pursuit of 
happiness" than those of others who in later days corrupt 
the suffrage in the rank growth of cities; build up palaces 
and pile up millions amid crowded paupers; monopolize 
telegraphic and railway lines by corporate machinery; 
spurn all relations to politics, save to debauch its agencies 
for personal gain; and know no Goddess of Liberty and no 
Eagle of Country save in the images which satire itself has 
stamped on the Almighty Dollar. 

In 1657, while yet " a Cromwell filled the Stuarts' throne, ' ' 
there came to Virginia with a party of Carlists who had 



Dedication of the Washitigton National Moinnnent. 87 

rebelled against him John Washington, of Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, who became a magistrate and member of the Honse 
of Bnrgesses, and distinguished himself in Indian warfare 
as the first colonel of his family on this side of the water. 
He was the nephew of that Sir Henry Washington who had 
led the forlorn hope of Prince Rupert at Bristol in 1643, 
and who, with a starving and mutinous garrison, had de- 
fended Worcester in 1649, answering all calls for surrender 
that he "awaited His Majesty's commands." 

And his progenitors had for centuries, running back to 
the conquest, been men of mark and fair renown. Pride 
and modesty of individuality alike forbid the seeking from 
any source of a borrowed luster, and the Washingtons were 
never studious or pretentious of ancestral dignities. But 
"we are quotations from our ancestors," says the philoso- 
pher of Concord — and who will say that in the loyalty to 
conscience and to principle, and to the right of self-determi- 
nation of what is principle, that the Washingtons have ever 
shown, whether as loyalist or rebel, was not the germ of 
that deathless devotion to Liberty and Country which sooti 
discarded all ancient forms in the mighty stroke for inde- 
pendence? 

Two traits of the Anglo-Saxon have been equally con- 
spicuous — respect for authority — resistance to its abuse. Ex- 
acting service from the one, even the Second Charles learned 
somewhat from the other. When pressed by James to an 
extreme measure, he answered: "Brother, I am too old to 
start again on my travels." James, becoming King, forgot 
the hint, was soon on his travels, with the Revolution of 16S8 
in full blast, and William of Orange upon his throne. The 
Barons of Runnymede had, indeed, written in the Great 



88 Dcd'uation of the Washington National Mo/mment. 

Charter that if the King violated any article thereof they 
should have the right to levy war against him until full 
satisfaction was made. And we know not which is most 
admirable, the wit or the wisdom of the English lawyer, 
John Selden, who, when asked by what law he justified the 
right of resistance, answered, "By the custom of England, 
which is part of the common law." Mountains and vales 
are natural correspondences. 

A very Tempe had Virginia been, sheltering the loyal 
Cavaliers in their reverence for authority. The higher and 
manlier trait of the Anglo-Saxon was about to receive more 
memorable illustration, and she uprose, Olympus-like, in 
her resistance to its abuse. 

And the Instrument of Providence to lead her j^eople and 
their brethren, had he lived in the days when mythic lore 
invested human heroes with a God-like grace, would have 
been shrouded in the glory of Olympian Jove. 

One hundred and fifty-three years ago, on the banks of the 
Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, on a spot marked 
now only b)- a memorial stone, of the blood of the people 
whom I have faintly described, fourth in descent from 
the Col. John Washington whom I have named, there was 
born a son to Augustine and Mary Washington. And not 
many miles above his birthplace is the dwelling where he 
lived and now lies buried. 

P>orne ujxju the bosom of that river which here mirrors 
Capitol dome, and monumental shaft in its seaward flow, 
the river itself seems to reverse its current and bear us 
silently into the past. Scarce has the vista of the city faded 
from our gaze when we behold on the woodland height that 
swells abo\-e the waters — amidst walks and groN'es and gar- 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 89 

dens— the wliite porch of that old colonial plantation home 
which has become the shrine of many a pilgrimatre. 

Contrasting it as there it stands to-day with the marble 
halls which we have left behind ns, we realize the trnth of 
Emerson: "The atmosphere of moral sentiment is a region 
of grandenr which rednces all material magnificence to to>s, 
}'et opens to every wretch that has reason the doors of the 
Universe. ' ' 

The quaint old wooden mansion, with the stately but 
simple old-fashioned mahogan>- furniture, real and nngar- 
nished; the swords and relics of campaigns and scenes 
familiar to every school-boy now; the key of the Bastile 
hanging in the hall incased in glass, calling to mind Tom 
Paine's happy expression, "That the principles of the 
American Revolution opened the Bastile is not to be 
doubted, therefore the key comes to the right place;" the 
black velvet coat worn when the farewell address to the 
Army was made; the rooms all in nicet>- of preparation as 
if expectant of the coming host— we move among these 
memorials of days and men long vanished— we stand under 
the great trees and watch the solemn river, in its never- 
ceasing flow, we gaze upon the simple tomb whose silence 
IS unbroken save by the low murmur of the waters or the 
wild bird's note— and we are enveloped in an atmosphere of 
moral grandeur which no pageantry of moving men nor 
splendid pile can generate. Nightly on the plain of Mar- 
athon the Greeks have the tradition, that there may yet be 
heard the neighing of chargers and the rushing shadows of 
spectral war. In the spell that broods o\'er the sacred 
groves of Vernon, Patriotism, Honor, Courage, Justice, 
Virtue, Truth— seem bodied f,,rth— the onl\- imperishable 
realities of man's bein<'. 



QO Dedicatmi of the JVas/ii/ii^/ou N'ational Monument. 

There emerges from tlie shades the figure of a }'Oiith over 
whose cradle had hovered no star of destiny, nor dandled a 
royal crown — an ingenuous youth, and one who in his early 
days gave auguries of great powers; the boy whose strong 
arm could fling a stone across the Rappahannock; whose 
strong will could tame the most fiery horse; whose just 
spirit made him the umpire of his fellows; whose obedient 
heart bowed to a mother's yearning for her son and laid 
down the Midshipman's warrant in the British Navy which 
answered his first ambitious dream; the student transcrib- 
ing mathematical problems, accounts, and business forms, 
or listening to the soldiers and seamen of vessels in the river 
as they tell of "hair breadth 'scapes by flood and field" ; the 
early moralist in his thirteenth year compiling matured 
"Rules for behavior and conversation"; the surveyor of 
sixteen, exploring the wilderness for Lord Fairfax, sleeping 
on the ground, climbing mountains, swimming rivers, kill- 
ing and cooking his own game, noting in his diary- soils, 
minerals, and locations, and making maps which are models 
of nice and accurate draughtsmanship; the incipient soldier 
studying tactics under Adjutant Muse, and taking lessons 
in broadsword fence from the old soldier of fortune, Jacob 
Van Braam; the Major and Adjutant-General of the Virginia 
frontier forces at nineteen — we seem to see him yet as here 
he stood, a model of manly beauty in his youthful prime — a 
man in all that makes a man ere manhood's years have been 
fulfilled — standing on the threshold of a grand career, ' ' hear- 
ing his days before him and the trumpet of his life." 

The scene changes. Out into the world of stern ad\cn- 
ture he passes, taking as naturally to the field and the front- 
ier as the eagle to the air. At the age of twenty-one he is 



Dedication of the U'as/iington Naiioiial Monument. 91 

riding from Willianisbiirg to the Frciicli post at Venango, 
in western Penns}-lvania, on a mission for Governor Din- 
widdie, which reqnires "conrage to cope with savages and 
sagacity to negotiate with white men"— on that mission 
which' Edward Everett recognizes as "the first movement 
of a military nature which resulted in the establishment of 
American Independence." At twenty-two he has fleshed 
his maiden sword, has heard the bullets whistle, and found 
"something charming in the sound " ; and soon he is colonel 
of the Virginia regiment in the unfortunate affair at Fort 
Necessity, and is compelled to retreat after losing a sixth of 
his command. He quits the service on a point of military 
etiquette and honor, but at twenty-three he reappears as 
\^olunteer Aide b}- the side of Braddock in the ill-starred ex- 
pedition against Fort DuOuesne, and is the onh- mounted 
officer unscathed in the disaster, escaping with four bullets 
through his garments, and after having two horses shot un- 
der him. 

The prophetic eye of Samuel Davies has now pointed him 
out as "that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I 
can but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal 
a manner for some important ser\-ice to hiscoimtry"; and 
soon the prophecy is fulfilled. The same year he is in'com- 
mand of the Virginia frontier forces. Arduous conflicts of 
varied fortunes are ere long ended, and on the 25th of No- 
vember, 1759, he marches into the reduced fortress of Fort 
DuOuesne— where Pittsburgh now stands, and the Titans of 
Industry wage the eternal war of Toil— marches in with the 
advanced guard of his troops, and plants the P.ritish flag 
over its smoking ruins. 

That self-same year Wolfe, another young and brilliant 



92 Dt'dication of the IVas/ii/igton National MoJiiii/iefit. 

soldier of Britain, has scaled and triumphed on the Heights 
of Abraham — his flame of valor quenched as it lit the blaze 
of victory; Canada surrenders; the seven years' war is done; 
the French power in America is broken, and the vast region 
west of the Alleghanies, from the lakes to the Ohio, em- 
bracing its valley and tributary streams, is under the scepter 
of King George. America has been made whole to the Eng- 
lish-speaking race, to become in time the greater Britain. 

Thus, building wiser than he knew, Washington had taken 
no small part in cherishing the seed of a nascent nation. 

Mount Vernon welcomes back the soldier of twenty-seven, 
who has become a name. Domestic felicity spreads its 
charms around him with the "agreeable partner" whom he 
has taken to his bosom, and he dreams of "more happiness 
llian he has experienced in the wide and bustling world." 

Already, ere his sword had found its scabbard, the people 
of Frederick county had made him their member of the 
House of Burgesses. And the quiet years roll by as the 
planter, merchant, and representative superintends his 
plantation, ships his crops, posts his books, keeps his diary, 
chases the fox for amusement, or rides over to Annapolis 
and leads the dance at. the Maryland capital — alternating 
between these private pursuits and serving his people as 
member of the Legislature and justice of the county court. 

But ere long this happy life is broken. The air is electric 
with the currents of revolution. England has launched forth 
on the fatal policy of taxing her colonies without their con- 
.scnt. The spirit of liberty and resistance is aroused. .He 
is loath to part with the Mother Land, which he still calls 
"home." But she turns a deaf ear to reason. The first 
Colonial Congress is called. \\v is a (k-leirale, and rides to 



Dcifualioii of the W'ashinglon National Monument. 93 

Pliiladclphia with Henry and Pendleton. The blow at Lex- 
ington is struck. The people rush to arms. The sons of 
the Cavaliers spring to the side of the sons of the Pilgrims. 
"Unhappy it is," he says, "that a brother's sword has been 
sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once happy plains 
of America are to be either drenched in blood or inhabited 
by slaves. Sad alternative! But how can a virtuous man 
hesitate in his choice?" He becomes commander-in-chief 
of the American forces. After seven >-ears' war he is the 
deliverer of his country. The old confederation passes away. 
The Constitution is established. He is twice chosen Presi- 
dent, and will not consent to longer serve. 

Once again Mount Vernon's grateful shades receive him, 
and there — the world-crowned Hero now— becomes again 
the simple citizen, wishing for his fellow-men "to see the 
Avhole world in peace and its inhabitants one band of 
brothers, striving who could contribute most to the happi- 
ness of mankind"— without a wish for himself, but "to live 
and die an honest man on his farm. ' ' A speck of war spots 
the sky. John Adams, now President, calls him forth as 
Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief to lead Amer- 
ica once more. But the cloud vanishes. Peace reigns. 
The lark sings at Heaven's gate in the fair morn of the new 
nation. Serene, contented, yet in the strength of manhood, 
though on the verge of three-score years and ten, he looks 
foj-th— the quiet farmer from his pleasant fields, the loving 
patriarch from the bowers of home— looks forth and sees 
the work of his hands established in a free and happy peo- 
ple. Suddenly comes the mortal stroke with severe cold. 
The agony is soon over. He feels his own d>ing pulse — the 
hand relaxes— he murmurs, "It is well;" and Washington 



94 Dedication of the IVas/ii/igton National Monument. 

is no more. While yet Time had crumbled never a stone 
nor dimmed the lustrous surface, prone to earth the mighty 
column fell. 

Washington, the friend of Liberty, is no more! 

The solemn cry filled the universe. Amidst the tears of 
his People, the bowed heads of kings, and the lamentations 
of the nations, they laid him there to rest upon the banks 
of the river whose murmurs were his boyhood's music — 
that river which, rising in mountain fastnesses amongst the 
grandest works of nature and reflecting in its course the 
proudest works of man, is a symbol of his history, which 
in its ceaseless and ever-widening flow is a symbol of his 
eternal fame. 

No sum could now be made of Washington's character 
that did not exhaust language of its tributes and repeat 
virtue by all her names. No sum could be made of his 
achievements that did not unfold the history of his country 
and its institutions — the history of his age and its progress — 
the history of man and his destiny to be free. But, whether 
character or achievement b^' regarded, the riches before us 
only expose the poverty of praise. So clear was he in his 
great office that no ideal of the Leader or Ruler can be formed 
that does not shrink by the side of the reality. And so has 
he impressed himself upon the minds of men, that no man 
can justly aspire to be the chief of a great free people who 
does not adopt his principles and emulate his example. We 
look with amazement on such eccentric characters as Alex- 
ander, Cocsar, Cromwell, Frederick, and Napoleon; but 
when the serene face of Washington rises before us man- 
kind inslinctivcly exclaims, "This is the Man for the Nations 
to trust and reverence and for heroes and rulers to copy." 



Dedicaiion of I he WasJiington National Monument. 95 

Drawing his sword from patriotic impulse, without ambi- 
tion and without malice, he wielded it without vindictivc- 
ness and sheathed it without reproach. All that humanity 
could conceive he did to suppress the cruelties of war and 
soothe its sorrows. He never struck a coward's blow. To 
him age, infancy, and helplessness were ever sacred. He 
tolerated no extremit}' iniless to curb the excesses of his 
enemy, and he never poisoned the sting of defeat by the 
exultation of the conqueror. 

Peace he welcomed as the Heaven-sent herald of Friendship ; 
and no coinitry has given him greater honor than that which 
he defeated; for England has been glad to claim him as the 
scion of her blood, and proud, like our sister American 
States, to divide with Virginia the honor of producing him. 

Fascinated by the perfection of the man, we are loath <^o 
break the mirror of admiration into the fragments of analy- 
sis. But, lo! as we attempt it, every fragment becomes the 
miniature of such sublimity and beauty, that the destroying 
hand can only multiply the forms of immortality. 

Grand and manifold as were its phases, there is }'et no dif- 
ficulty in understanding the character of Washington. He 
was no Veiled Prophet. He never acted a part. Simple, 
natural, and unaffected, his life lies before us, a fair and 
open manuscript. He disdained the arts which wrap power 
in mystery in order to magnify it. He practiced the pro- 
found diplomacy of truthful speech, the consunnnate tact 
of direct attention. Looking ever to the All-Wise Disposer 
of events, he relied on that Providence which helps men by 
giving them high hearts and hopes to help themselves with 
the means which their Creator has piit at their service. 
There was no infirmity in his conduct over which Charity 



g6 Di-ilicaiion of lite Washington N^ational Monument. 

must fling its veil ; no taint of selfishness from which Pnrity 
averts her gaze; no dark recess of intrigne that nuist be lit 
np with colored panegyric; no subterranean passage to be 
trod in trembling lest there be stirred the ghost of a buried 
crime. 

A true son of nature was George Washington, of nature 
in her brightest intelligence and noblest mold; and diffi- 
culty, if such there be in comprehending him, is only that 
of reviewing from a single standpoint the vast procession of 
those civil and military achievements which filled nearly 
half-a-century of his life, and in realizing the magnitude of 
those qualities wdiicli were requisite to their performance — 
the difficult)- of fashioniug iu our minds a pedestal broad 
enough to bear the tow-ering figure, whose greatness is di- 
minished by nothing but the perfection of its proportions. 
If his exterior — in calm, grave, and resolute repose — ever 
impressed the casual observer as austere and cold, it was 
only because he did not reflect that no great heart like his 
could have lived unbroken unless bound by iron nerves in 
an iron frame. The Commander of Armies, the Chief of a 
People, the Hope of Nations could not wear his heart upon 
his sleeve; and yet his sternest will could not conceal its 
high and warm pulsations. Under the enemy's guns at 
Boston he did not forget to instruct his agent to administer 
generously of charity to his needy neighbors at home. The 
sufferings of women and children, thrown adrift by war, and 
of his bleeding comrades, pierced his .soul. And the moist 
eye and trembling voice with which he bade farewell to his 
veterans bespoke the underlying tenderness of his nature, 
even as the storm-wind makes music in its under-tones. 

Disinterested Patriot, he would receive no pay for his mil- 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 97 

itary services. Refusing gifts, he was glad to guide the 
benefaction of a grateful State to educate the children of 
his fallen braves in the institution at Lexington which yet 
bears his name. Without any of the blemishes that mark 
the tyrant, he appealed so loftily to the virtuous elements in 
man that he almost created the qualities of which his coun- 
try needed the exercise; and yet he was so magnanimous 
and forbearing to the weaknesses of others, that he often 
obliterated the vices of which he feared the consequence. 
But his virtue was more than this. It was of 'that daring, 
intrepid kind that, seizing principle with a giant's grasp, 
assumes responsibility at any hazard, suffers sacrifice with- 
out pretense of martyrdom, bears calumny without reply, 
imposes superior will and understanding on all around it, 
capitulates to no unworthy triumph, but must carry all 
things at the point of clear and blameless conscience. 
Scorning all manner of meanness and cowardice, his bursts 
of wrath at their exhibition heighten our admiration for 
those noble passions which were kindled by the inspirations 
and exigencies of virtue. 

Invested with the powers of a Dictator, the countr}- be- 
stowing them felt no distrust of his integrity; he, receiving 
them, gave assurance that, as the sword was the last resort 
of Liberty, so it should be the first thing laid aside when 
Liberty was won. And keeping the faith in all things, he 
left mankind bewildered with the splendid problem whether 
to admire him most for what he was or what he would not 
be. Over and above all his virtues was the matchless man- 
hood of personal honor, to which Confidence gave in safet>- 
the key of every treasure ; on which Temptation dared not 
smile ; on which Suspicion never cast a frown. And why 

7 W M 



98 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

prolong the catalogue? "If you are presented with medals 
of Caesar, of Trojan, or Alexander, on examining their 
-features you are still led to ask, what was their stature and 
the forms of their persons? but if you discover in a heap of 
ruins the head or the limb of an antique Apollo, be not 
curious about the other parts, but rest assured they were all 
conformable to those of a God." 

Great as a Commander, it may not be said of him as of 
Marlborough, that "he never formed the plan of a campaign 
that he did* not execute; never besieged a city that he did 
not take; never fought a battle that he did not gain." But 
it can be said of him that, at the head of raw volunteers, 
hungry to the edge of famine, ragged almost to nakedness, 
whose muniments of war were a burlesque of its necessities, 
he defeated the trained bands and veteran generals of Europe; 
and that, when he had already earned the name of the Ameri- 
can Fabius, destined to save a nation by delay, he suddenly 
displayed the daring of a Marcellus. It may be said that he 
was the first general to employ large bodies of light infantry 
as skirmishers, catching the idea from his Indian warfare, 
and so developing it that it was copied by the Great Frede- 
rick of Prussia, and ere long perfected into the system now 
almost universal. It can be said of him, as testified by John 
Adams, that "it required more serenity of temper, a deeper 
understanding, and more courage than fell to the lot of Marl- 
borough, to ride on the whirlwind" of such tempetuous 
times as Washington dealt with, and that he did "ride on 
the whirlwind and direct the storm. ' ' It can be said that he 
was tried in a crucible to which Marlborough was never 
subjected — adversity, defeat, depression of fortune bordering 
on despair. The first battle of his youth ended in capitula- 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 99 

lation. The first general engagement of the revolution at 
Long Island opened a succession of disasters and retreats. 
But with the energy that remolds broken opportunities into 
greater ones, with the firmness of mind that can not be un- 
locked by trifles but which when unlocked displays a cabi- 
net of fortitude, he wrenched victory from stubborn fortune, 
compelling the reluctant oracle to exclaim as to Alexander, 
"My son, thou art invincible." So did he weave the net 
of war by land and sea, that at the very moment when an 
elated adversary was about to strike the final blow^ for his 
countr}^'s fall, he surrounded him b}' swift and far-reaching 
combinations, and twined the lilies of France with the 
Stars and Stripes of America over the ramparts of York- 
town. And if success be made the test of merit, let it be 
remembered that he conducted the greatest military and 
civil enterprises of his age, and left no room for fancy to 
divine greater perfection of accomplishment. 

Great in action as by the council board, the finest horse- 
man and knightliest figure of his time, he seemed designed 
by nature to lead in those bold strokes which needs must 
come when the battle lies with a single man — those critical 
moments of the campaign or the strife when, if the mind 
hesitates or a nerve flinches, all is lost. We can never for- 
get the passage of the Delaware that black December night, 
amidst shrieking winds and great upheaving blocks of ice 
which would have petrified ^ leader of less hardy mold, and 
then the fell swoop at Trenton. We behold him as when at 
Monmouth he turns back the retreating lines, and galloping 
his white charger along the ranks until he falls, leaps on his 
Arabian bay, and shouts to his men: "Stand fast, my boys, 
the vSoutheru troops are coming to support )'ou!" And we 



lOO Dedication of the Washiny^lon IWitional Alonuinoit. 

hear Lafayette exclaim, "Never did I behold so superb a 
man!" We see him again at Princeton dashing through a 
storm of shot to rally the wavering troops; he reins his horse 
between the contending lines, and cries: "Will you leave 
your general to the foe?" then bolts into the thickest fray. 
Colonel Fitzgerald, his aid, drojjs his reins and pulls his hat 
down over his eyes that he may not see his chieftain fall, 
when, through the smoke he reappears waving his hat, 
cheering on his men, and shouting: "Away, dear Colonel, 
. and bring up the troops ; the day is ours. ' ' ' 'Cceur de Lion ' ' 
might have doflfed his plume to such a chief — foi a great 
knight was he, who met his foes full tilt in the shock of 
battle and hurled them down with an arm whose sword 
flamed with righteous indignation. 

As children pore over the pictures in their books ere they 
can read the words annexed to them so we linger with ting- 
ling blood by such inspiring scenes, while little do we reck 
of those daik hours when the aching head pondered the 
problems of a country's fate. And yet there is a greater 
theater in which Washington appears, although not so often 
has its curtain been uplifted. 

For it was as a statesman that Washington was greatest. 
Not in the sense that Hamilton and Jefferson, Adams and 
Madison were statesmen; but in a larger sense. Men may 
marshal armies who can not drill divisions. Men may mar- 
shal nations in storm and travail who have not the accom- 
plishments of their cabinet ministers. Not so versed as they 
was he in the details of political science. And yet as he 
studied tactics when he anticipated war, so he studied poli- 
tics when he foresaw his civil role approaching, reading the 
history and examining the principles of ancient and modern 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. loi 

confederacies, and making notes of their virtues, defects, 
and methods of operation. 

His pen did not possess the facile play and classic grace of 
their pens, but his vigorous eloquence had the clear ring of 
our mother tongue. I will not say that he was so astute, so 
quick, so inventive as the one or another of them — that his 
mind was characterized by the vivacity of wit, the rich- col- 
orings of fancy, or daring flights of imagination. But with 
him thought and action like well-trained coursers kept 
abreast in the chariot race, guided by an eye that never 
quailed, reined by a hand that never trembled. He had a 
more infallible discrimination of circumstances and men 
than any of his contemporaries. He weighed facts in a 
juster scale, with larger equity, and firmer equanimity. 
He best applied to them the lessons of experience. With 
greater ascendency of character he held men to their ap- 
pointed tasks; with more inspiring virtue he commanded 
more implicit confidence. He bore a truer divining-rod, 
and through a wilderness of contention he alone was the 
unerring Pathfinder of the People. 

There can, indeed, be no right conception of Washington 
that does not accord him a great and extraordinary genius. 
I will not say he could have produced a play of Shakes- 
peare or a poem of Milton, handled with Kant the tangled 
skein of metaphyics, probed the secrecies of mind and mat- 
ter with Bacon, constructed a railroad or an engine like 
Stephenson, wooed the electric spark from Heaven to earth 
with Franklin, or walked with Newton the pathways of the 
spheres. But if his genius were of a different order, it was 
of as rare and high an order. It dealt with man in the con- 
crete — with his vast concerns of business stretching over a 



I02 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

continent and projected into the ages — with his seething 
passions; with his marvellous exertions of mind, body, and 
spirit to be free. He knew the materials he dealt with by 
intuitive perception of the heart of man — by experience and 
observation of his aspirations and his powers — by reflection 
upon his complex relations, rights, and duties as a social 
being. He knew just where, between nien and States, to 
erect the monumental mark to divide just reverence for 
authority from just resistance to its abuse. A poet of social 
facts, he interpreted by his deeds the harmonies of justice. 

Practical yet exalted, not stumbling in the pit as he gazed 
upon the stars, he would "put no man in any office of con- 
sequence whose political tenets were opposed to the meas- 
ures which the General Government were pursuing. ' ' Yet 
he himself, by the Kingliness of his nature, could act inde- 
pendently of part}^, return the confidence and affections, 
use the brains and have thrust upon him the unanimous 
suffrage of all parties — walking the dizz}' heights of power 
in the perfect balance of every faculty, and surviving in 
that rarefied atmosphere which lesser frames could only 
breathe to perish. 

Brilliant I will not call him, if the brightness of the rip- 
pling river exceed the solemn glory of old Ocean. Brilliant 
I will not call him, if darkness must be visible in order to 
display the light; for he had none of that rocket-like brill- 
iancy which flames in instant corruscation across the black 
brow of night — and then is not. But if a steady, unflicker- 
ing flame, slow rising to its lofty sphere, high hung in the 
Heavens of Contemplation, dispensing far and wide its rays, 
revealing all things on which it shines in due proportions 
and large relations, niakingRight, Duty, and Destiny so plain 



Dedication of the Washington National Mo/iument. 103 

that in the vision we are scarce conscious of the light — if 
this be brillianc}' — then the genius of Washington was as 
full-orbed and luminous as' the god of day in his zenith. 

This is genius in rarest manifestation ; and, as life is 
greater than an}- theor}- of living, in so much does he who 
points the path of Destiny and brings great things to pass, 
exceed the mere dreamer of great dreams. . 

The work of Washington filled the rounded measure of 
his splendid faculties. Grandly did he illustrate the Anglo- 
Saxon trait of just resistance to the abuse of power — stand- 
ing in front of his soldier-husbandmen on the fields of 
Boston, and telling the general of earth's greatest Em- 
pire, who stigmatized them as "rebels" and threatened 
them "with the punishment of the cord," that "he could 
conceive of no rank more honorable than that which flows 
from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free People, 
the original and purest fountain of all power," and that, 
' ' far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind of true mag- 
nanimity and enlarged ideas would comprehend and respect 
it." Victoriously did he vindicate the principle of the 
Declaration of Independence, that to secure the inalienable 
rights of man "governments are instituted amongst men, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 
and that whenever any form of government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter 
or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its 
foundation on such principles, and organizing its power in 
such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to efiect their 
safety and happiness." By these signs he conquered. And 
had his career ended here none other would have surpassed — 
whose could have equaled it? But where the fame of so 



I04 Dedication of the Washington National Monutnent. 

many successful warriors has found conclusion, or gone be- 
yond only to be tarnished, his took new flight upward. 

If I might venture to discriminate, I would say that it 
was in the conflicts of opinion that succeeded the Revolution 
that the greatness of Washington most displayed itself; for 
it was then that peril thickened in most subtle forms ; that 
rival passions burned in intestine flames ; that crises came, 
demanding wider-reaching and more constructive faculties 
than may be exhibited in war, and higher heroism than may 
be avouched in battle. 

And it was then that the soldier uplifted the visor of his 
helmet and disclosed the countenance of the sage, and pass- 
ing from the fields of martial fame to the heights of civil 
achievement, still more resplendent, became the world-wide 
statesman, like Venus in her transit, sinking the light of his 
past exploits only in the sun of a new-found glory. 

First to perceive, and swift to point out, the defects in the 
Articles of Confederation, they became manifest to all long 
before victory crowned the warfare conducted under them. 
Charged by them with the public defense, Congress could 
not put a soldier in the field; and charged with defraying 
expenses, it could not levy a dollar of imposts or taxes. It 
could, indeed, borrow money with the assent of nine States 
of the thirteen, but what mockery of finance was that, when 
the borrower could not command any resource of payment. 

The States had indeed put but a scepter of straw in the 
legislative hand of the Confederation — what wonder that 
it soon wore a crown of thorns! The paper currency ere 
long dissolved to nothingness; for four days the Army was 
without food, and whole regiments drifted from the ranks 
of our hard-pressed defenders. "I see," said Washington, 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 105 

"one head gradually changing into thirteen; I see one army 
gradually branching into thirteen, which, instead of looking 
up to Congress as the supreme controlling power, are con- 
sidering themselves as dependent upon their respective 
States. ' ' While yet his sword could not slumber, his busy 
pen was warning the statesmen of the country that unless 
Congress were invested with adequate powers, or should 
assume them as matter of right, we should become but thir-" 
teen States, pursuing local interests, until annihilated in a 
general crash — the cause would be lost — and the fable of the 
bundle of sticks applied to us. 

In rapid succession his notes of alarm and invocations for 
aid to Union followed each other to the leading men of the 
States, North and South. Turning to his own State, and ap- 
pealing to George Mason, "Where," he exclaimed, "where 
are our men of abilities? Why do they not come forth and 
save the country ? " He compared the affairs of this great 
continent to the mechanism of a clock, of which each State 
was putting its own small part in order, but neglecting the 
great wheel, or spring, which was to put the whole in motion. 
He summoned Jefferson, Wythe, and Pendleton to his as- 
sistance, telling them that the present temper of the States 
was friendly to lasting union, that the moment should be 
improved and might never return, and that "after gloriously 
and successfully contending against the usurpation of Brit- 
ain we may fall a prey to our own folly and disputes." 

How keen the prophet's ken, that through the smoke of 
war discerned the coming evil; how diligent the Patriot's 
hand, that amidst awful responsibilities reached futureward 
to avert it! 



io6 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

By almost a miracle the weak Confederation, "a barrel 
without a hoop," was held together perforce of outside press- 
ure ; and soon America was free. 

But not yet had beaten Britain concluded peace — not yet 
had dried the blood of Victory's field ere "follies and dis- 
putes" confounded all things with their Babel tongues and 
intoxicated Liberty gave loose to license. An unpaid Army 
with unsheathed swords clamored around a poverty-stricken 
and helpless Congress. And grown at last impatient even 
with their chief, officers high in rank plotted insurrection 
and circulated an anonymous address, urging it "to appeal 
from the justice to the fears of government, and suspect the 
man who would advise to longer forbearance." Anarchy 
was about to wreck the Arch of Triumph — poor, exhausted, 
bleeding, weeping America lay in agony upon her bed of 
laurels. 

Not a moment did Washington hesitate. He convened 
his officers, and going before them he read them an address, 
which, for home-thrust argument, magnanimous temper, 
and the eloquence of persuasion which leaves nothing to be 
added, is not exceeded by the noblest utterances of Greek 
or Roman. A nobler than Coriolanus was before them, 
who needed no mother's or wife's reproachful tears to turn 
the threatening steel from the gates of Rome. Pausing, as 
he read his speech, he put on his spectacles and said: "I 
have grown gray in )'our ser\-ice, and now find m)'self grow- 
ing blind." This unaffected touch of nature completed the 
master's spell. The late fomenters of insurrection gathered 
to their chief with words of veneration — the storm went 
by — and, says Curtis in his History of the Constitution, 
"Had the Commander-in-Chief been other than Washing- 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 107 

ton, the land would have been deluged with the blood of 
civil war." 

But not yet was Washington's work accomplished. Peace 
dawned upon the weary land, and parting with his soldiers, 
he pleaded with them for union. ' ' Happy, thrice happy, 
shall they be pronounced," he said, "who have contrib- 
uted an)thing in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom 
and empire; who have assisted in protecting the rights of 
human nature, and establishing an as}'lum for the poor and 
oppressed ofall nations and religions." But still the foun- 
dations of the stupendous fabric trembled, and no cement 
held its stones together. It was then, with that thickening 
peril, Washington rose to his highest stature. Without 
civil station to call forth his utterance, impelled by the in- 
trepid impulse of a soul that could not see the hope of a 
nation perish without leaping into the stream to save it, he 
addressed the whole People of America in a Circular to the 
Governors of the States : ' ' Convinced of the importance of 
the crisis, silence in me, ' ' he said, ' ' \yould be a crime. I 
will, therefore, speak the language of freedom and sincerity. " 
He set forth the need of union in a strain that touched the 
quick of sensibility; he held up the citizens of America as 
sole lords of a vast tract of continent; he portrayed the fair 
opportunity for political happiness with which Heaven had 
crowned them ; he pointed out the blessings that would at- 
tend their collective wisdom ; that in their fate was involved 
that of unborn millions; that mutual concessions and sacri- 
fices must be made; and that supreme power must be lodged 
somewhere to regulate and govern the general concerns of 
the Confederate Republic, without which the union would 



io8 Dedication of the Washington National Mofitiment. 

not be of long dnration. And he urged that happiness would 
be ours if we seized the occasion and made it our own. 

In this, one of the very greatest acts of Washington, was 
revealed the heart of the man, the spirit of the hero, the 
wisdom of the sage — I might almost say the sacred inspira- 
tion of the prophet. 

But still the wing of the eagle drooped; the gathering 
storms baffled his sunward flight. Even with Washington 
in the van, the column wavered and halted — States strag- 
gling to the rear that had hitherto been foremost for perma- 
nent Union, under an efficacious Constitution. And while 
three years rolled by amidst the jargon of sectional and 
local contentions, "the half-starved government," as Wash- 
ington depicted it, "limped along on crutches, tottering at 
every step." And while monarchical Europe with satur- 
nine face declared that the American hope of Union was the 
wild and visionary notion of romance, and predicted that 
we would be to the end of time a disunited people, suspi- 
cious and distrustful of each other, divided and subdivided 
into petty commonwealths and principalities, lo! the very 
earth yawned under the feet of America, and in that very 
region whence had come forth a glorious band of orators, 
statesmen, and soldiers to plead the caiise and fight the bat- 
tles of Independence — lo! the volcanic fires of Rebellion 
burst forth upon the heads of the faithful, and the militia 
were leveling the guns of the Revolution against the breasts 
of their brethren. ' ' What, gracious God ! is man? ' ' Wash- 
ington exclaimed: "It was but the other day that we were 
shedding our blood to obtain the Constitutions under which 
we live, and now we are unsheathing our swords to overturn 
them." 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. log 

But see! there is a ray of hope, Maryland and Virginia 
had already entered into a commercial treaty for regulating 
the navigation of the rivers and great bay in which the>' 
had common interests, and Washington had been one of the 
Commissioners in its negotiation. And now, at the sugges- 
tion of Maryland, Virginia had called on all the States to 
meet in convention at Annapolis, to adopt commercial regu- 
lations for the whole country. Could this foundation be 
laid, the eyes of the Nation-builders foresaw that the per- 
manent structure would ere long rise upon it. But when 
the day of meeting came, no State north of New York or 
south of Virginia was represented ; and in their helplessness 
those assembled could only recommend a Constitutional 
Convention, to meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to pio- 
vide for the exigencies of the situation. 

And still thick clouds and darkness rested on the land, 
and there lowered upon its hopes a night as black as that 
upon the freezing Delaware; but through its gloom the 
dauntless leader was still marching on to the consummation 
of his colossal work, with a hope that never died; with a 
courage that never faltered; with a wisdom that never yielded 
that ' ' all is vanity. ' ' 

It was not permitted the Roman to despair of the Repub- 
lic, nor did he — our Chieftain. "It will all come right at 
last," he said. It did. And now let the historian, Ban- 
croft, speak: "From this state of despair the countr>' was 
lifted by Madison and Virginia. ' ' Again he says : ' ' We 
come now to a week more glorious for Virginia beyond any 
in her annals, or in the history of any Republic that had ever 
before existed. ' ' 

It was that week in which Madison, "giving effect to his 



1 1 o Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

own long-cherished wishes, and still earlier wishes of Wash- 
ington," addressing, as it were, the whole country, and mar- 
shaling all the States, warned them "that the crisis had 
arrived at which the People of America are to decide the 
solemn question, whether they would, by wise and magnani- 
mous efforts reap the fruits of Independence and of Union, 
or whether by giving way to unmanly jealousies and preju- 
dices, or to partial and transitory interests, they would re- 
nounce the blessings prepared for them by the Revolution," 
and conjuring them "to concur in such further concessions 
and provisions as may be necessary to secure the objects for 
which that Government was instituted, and make the United 
States as happy in peace as they had been glorious in war." 

In such manner, my countrymen, Virginia, adopting the 
words of Madison, and moved by the constant spirit of Wash- 
ington, joined in convoking that Constitutional Convention, 
in which he headed her delegation, and over which he pre- 
sided, and whose deliberations resulted in the formation and 
adoption of that instrument which the Premier of Great 
Britain pronounces ' ' the most wonderful work ever struck 
off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. " 

In such manner the State which gave birth to the Father 
of his Country, following his guiding genius to the Union, 
as it had followed his sword through the battles of Independ- 
ence, placed herself at the head of the wavering column. 

In such manner America heard and hearkened to the voice 
of her chief; and now closing ranks, and moving with re- 
animated step, the Thirteen Commonwealths wheeled and 
faced to the front, on the line of the Union, under the sacred 
ensign of the Constitution. 



1 1 1 



Dedication of the Washington National Moytument. 

Thus at last was the crowning work of Washington ac- 
complished. Out of the tempests of war, and the tumults of 
civil commotion, the ages bore their fruit, tlie long }-earning 
of humanity was answered. "Rome to America" is the 
eloquent inscription on one stone contributed to yon colossal 
shaft— taken from the ancient Temple of Peace that once 
stood hard by the Palace of the Caesars. Uprisen from the 
sea of Revolution, fabricated from the ruins of the battered 
Bastiles, and dismantled palaces of unhallowed power, stood 
forth now the Republic of Republics, the Nation of Nations, 
the Constitution of Constitutions, to which all lands and 
times and tongues had contributed of their wisdom. And 
the Priestess of Liberty was in her Holy Temple. 

When Salamis had been fought and Greece again kept 
free, each of the victorious generals voted himself to be first 
in honor; but all agreed that Themistocles was second. 
When the most memorable struggle for the rights of human 
nature, of which time holds record, was thus happily con- 
cluded in the muniment of their preservation, whoever else 
was second, unanimous acclaim declared that Washington 
was first. Nor in that struggle alone does he stand foremost. 
In the name of the people of the United States— their Presi- 
dent, their Senators, their Representatives, and their Judges, 
do crown to-day, with the grandest crown that veneration 
has ever lifted to the brow of glory, Him whom Virginia gave 
to America — whom America has given to the world and to 
the ages — and whom mankind with universal suffrage has 
proclaimed the foremost of the /ounders of empire in the 
fi.rst degree of greatness; whom Liberty herself has anointed 
?s the first citizen in the great republic of Humanity. 
Encompassed by the inviolate seas stands to-day the Amer- 



1 1 2 Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 

ican Republic which he founded — a freer Greater Britain — 
uplifted above the powers and principalities of the earth, 
even as his monument is uplifted over roof and dome and 
spire of the multitudinous city. 

Long live the Republic of Washington! Respected by 
mankind, beloved of all its sons, long may it be the asylum of 
the poor and oppressed of all lands and religions — long may 
it be the citadel of that Liberty which writes beneath the 
Eagle's folded wings, "We will sell to no man, we will deny 
to no man. Right and Justice." 

Long live the United States of America! Filled with the 
free, magnanimous spirit, crowned by the wisdom, blessed 
by the moderation, hovered over by the guardian angel of 
Washington's example; may they be ever worthy in all 
things to be defended by the blood of the brave who know 
the rights of man and shrink not from their assertion — may 
they be each a column, and altogether, under the Constitu- 
tion, a perpetual Temple of Peace, unshadowed by a Caesar's 
palace; at whose altar may freely commune all who seek the 
union of Liberty and Brotherhood. 

Long live our Country! Oh, long through the undying 
ages may it stand, far removed in fact as in space from the 
Old World's feuds and follies — alone in its grandeur and its 
glory — itself the immortal monument of Him whom Provi- 
dence commissioned to teach man the power of Truth, and 
to prove to the nations that their Redeemer liveth. 

The delivery of the above was repeatedly interrupted with 
loud applause. 

The President of the Senate. In accordance with 
the programme. Benediction will now be pronounced by 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 113 

Rev. Dr. Lindsay, Chaplain of the House of Representa- 
tives. 

The Rev. John S. Lindsay, D. D. , then pronounced this 
benediction : 

The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, be among you and remain with you always. Amen. 

At 5 o'clock p. m. the President of the United States, the 
Supreme Court, the Senate, and the invited guests retired 
from the Hall. 

8 W M 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



"S 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Brookline, Mass., June 24, 1884. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

C/iainna/i, dr'c. : 

My Dear Sir: Your favor of the 19th instant, addressed to me at 
Boston, has reached me at my summer home, and I have not found 
it easy to reply. It brings me face to face with an appointment 
which I hardly know how either to accept or to decline. 

I am most highly honored by the resolution of Congress, naming 
me as the orator on the completion of the Monument to Washington, 
and I thank you sincerely for the friendly and flattering terms in which 
you have communicated the resolution. 

Nothing would afford me greater gratification, in these closing 
years of my life, than to perform the distinguished service thus 
assigned to me, and I wish I could feel emboldened to accept the 
appointment without reserve. But I cannot be wholly unmindful of 
the disabilities and uncertainties of advanced age. 

Should life and health be spared me, I shall not fail to be with you 
on the 2 2d of February next, to unite in the congratulations of the 
hour and to do homage to the memory of the Father of his Country. 
Nor can I decline to give some expression to the remembrances and 
emotions awakened by the completion of a monument, of which I 
was privileged to speak at length at the laying of its corner-stone so 
many years ago. But I dare not render myself respon.sible for a long, 
elaborate oration. The effort would exceed my strength, and in all 
sincerity, but with great reluctance, I must beg your Commission to 
excuse me from the attempt. 

117 



1 1 8 Dedication of the Was/ii?igton National Monument. 

A brief commemorative address is the most that I can promise. 
Meantime the Commission must feel at perfect hberty to leave me 
altogether out of their programme, and to make such arrangements 
as may seem to them most likely to secure the success of the occa- 
sion. I desire them only to understand, that if, within the limitations 
which my age enjoins, I can lend any assistance or interest to the 
proposed ceremonial, I shall take pride and pleasure in placing my- 
self at their disposal. 

Believe me, dear Senator Sherman, with great respect and regard, 
Your friend and servant, 

ROBT. C. WINTHROP. 



90 Marluorougii vStreet, Boston, 

February 13, 1885. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

Chair juan, dfc. : 
Dear Senator Sherman : It is with deep regret that I find my- 
self compelled to abandon all further hope of being at the Dedication 
of the Washington Monument on the 21st instant. I have been 
looking forward to the possibility of being able to run on at the last 
moment, and to pronounce a few sentences of my oration before 
handing it to Governor Long, who has so kindly consented to read 
it. But my recovery from dangerous illness has been slower than I 
anticipated, and my physician concurs with my family in forbidding 
me from any attempt to leave home at present. 

I need not assure the Commissioners how great a disappointment 
it is to me to be deprived of the privilege of being present on this 
most interesting occasion. I am sure of tlieir sympathy without 
asking for it. 

Please present my respectful apologies to your associates, and be- 
lieve me, 

With great regard, very faithfully, yours, 

ROBT. C. WIN riTROP. 

P. S. — This is the first letter I have attempted to write with my 
own pen since my illness. 



Dedication of the Washington National Monument. 1 1 g 

New York City, yanuary 27, 1885. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

Chairman^ dr'c. : 

Dear Sir: I regret very much that my physical condition pre- 
vents my accepting the invitation of the Commissioners appointed 
by Congress to provide suitable ceremonies for the Dedication of the 
Washington Monument, to be present to witness the same, on the 
2ist of February next. My throat still requires the attention of the 
physician, daily, though I am encouraged to believe that it is im- 
proving. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

U. S. GRANT. 



Fremont, Ohio, February 16, 1885. 

Hon. John Sherman, 

Chairman : 

My Dear Sir: I regret that it is not practicable for me to accept 
the invitation" to attend the ceremonies at the Dedication of the 
Washington Monument, on the 21st instant. 

When the work on the Monument was resumed under the act of 
1876, as a member of the Commission in charge of it I was much 
interested in the plan for strengthening the foundation recommended 
by the engineer, Colonel Casey, and have ever since watched with 
solicitude the progress of the structure towards completion. It is a 
pleasure to have an opportunity to congratulate Colonel Casey and 
his associates, that after so many anxious years of devotion to their 
task they are now gladdened by the successful termination of their 
skillful and hazardous labors. 

The fame of Washington needs no monument. No work of human 
hands can adequately illustrate his character and services 

His countrymen, however, wishing to manifest their admiration 
and gratitude, a hundred years ago decided to build a monument in 
honor of his deeds and virtues. Having undertaken the work, they 
could not neglect it or allow it to fail. The friends of liberty and 
good government in all other lands will unite with patriotic Ameri- 
cans in rejoicing that a monument so fitting and majestic has now 
been erected in memory of Washington. 

Sincerely, 

R. 15. HAYES. 



I20 Dedication of the IVas/ii/ig/o/i National Mouiimeiit. 

Albany, yanuary 31, 1885. 
Hon. Jf)HN Sherman, 

C/inirnian, ds-'e. .■ 

Deai! Sir: 1 regret very imu li that it will be imj)Ossible for me to 
be present at the ceremonies attending the Dedication of the Wash- 
ington Monument, on the 21st of February. 

Many engagements and occupations, which you can well imagine 
admit of no postponement, oblige me to forego the pleasure of taking 
I)art in the interesting exercises. 
Yours, very truly, 

GROVKR CLEVELAND. 



Bangor, January 29, 1885. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

C/iair/nan of Co/n/nission, d^c. .■ 
I have been honored in the receipt of the invitation of the Com- 
mission in relation to the Dedication of the Washington Monument, 
to be present at the same on the 21st day of Eebruarv. I have also 
received \f)ur invitation for the same purpose, in which you express 
the hope that 1 will accept the invitation tendered to me. 

In view of the importance of the event and its national character, 
1 do not feel at liberty to decline your invitation, and I cordially 
accept the same. 

1 will be present at the Dedication, unless prevented by some 
cause not now known or anticipated. 

I have the honor to be, very truly, yours, 

HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 



Malone, N. Y., fanuary 28, 1885. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

C/iairnian, cfe. .- 
Sir: I am in receipt, through you as its chairman, of the invita- 
tion of the "Cduimittee appointed by Congress to provide suitable 
ceremonies for the Dedication of the Washington Monnnu-nt." lo be 
present at those cereuKJUies. 



Dedicalion of the Washington National Monument. 121 

I greatly regret to say that the condition of my health will deprive 
me of the pleasure of being present on that occasion. 
Very respectfully, yoiirs, 

W. A. WHEELER. 



912 Garrison- Avenue, Saint Louis, Mo., 

yauuary 28, 1SS5. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

Chairman of Committee, Washington, D. C: 
Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge the compliment of your invita- 
tion to share in the ceremonial of the Dedication of the Washins- 
ton Monument on the 21st of February next, and to express regret 
that I cannot be present. 



With great respect, 



W. T. SHERMAN, 

General, 



Oak Knoll, Danvers, Mass., 

Second Month 8, 1885. 
Hon. John Sherman, 

Chairman of Committee: 

Dear Friend: The state of my health will scarcely permit me to 
avail myself of the invitation of the Commission to attend the cere- 
monies of the Dedication of the Washington Monument. 

In common with my fellow-citizens I rejoice at tl^e successful com- 
pletion of this majestic testimonial of the reverence and affection 
which the people of the United States, irrespective of party, section, 
or race, cherish for the Father of his Country. Grand, however, and 
imposing as that testimonial may seem, it is, after all, but an inade- 
quate outward representation of that mightier monument, unseen 
and immeasureable, builded of the living stones of a nation's love 
and gratitude, the hearts of forty millions of people. But the world 
has not outlived its need of picture-writing and symbolism, and the 
great object-lesson of the Washington Monument will doubtless 
prove a large factor in the moral and political education of present 
and future generations. Let us hope that it will be a warning as well 



12 2 Dedicatio7i of ilie Was/iini^ton National Alomimeiit. 

as a benediction; and that while its sun-Ht altitude may fitly symbol- 
ize the truth that "righteousness exalteth a nation," its shadow falling 
on the dome of the Capitol may be a daily reminder that "sin is a 
reproach to any people." Surely it will not have been reared in 
vain if, on the day of its dedication, its mighty shaft shall serve to 
lift heavenward the voice of a united people that the principles for 
which the fathers toiled and suffered shall be maintained inviolate 
by their children. 

With sincere respect, I am thy friend, 

JOHN G. WHITTIER. 



